Now that I have a firm understanding of pleasure, there is another feeling worth exploring, one that is beyond this world and found only in a spontaneous moment. In this section, I compare pleasure up against joy, a stronger field that is HOME to Spontaneity.
No one ever speaks about this topic much, or if so it is only mentioned superficially. Let’s change that and unravel the nature of Spontaneity, so we can get more bang for our existential buck.
With & Without the Sense of Something Amazing Ahead
Before I eat a piece of cake or drink a beer, I know what’s coming. I get an early taste in a projection. When I’m about to ride my bike or skateboard on a warm summer’s day with a light ocean breeze, I already sense the heat, wind and environment that will soon hit me for real during a mental preview of the event.
My input systems are well aware of the changes that are about to take place in anticipation of a set of positive conversions heading my way. In fact, these days it’s rare for me to think otherwise and expect the unexpected because I simply always know what’s just around the corner.
Let’s jump straight into the fruits of pleasure and joy, which is why we live and move forward, right?
The differences can be unwrapped in one sentence…
It’s the ‘real-time moment packed with energy’ and not the ‘recorded impression priming my sensors’ that enlivens the process of joy in my world.
But now, I’d like to extend further in two sentences by telling you that joy is actually more pronounced but less common in the completely unanticipated.
It’s the ‘rare, unexpected taking shape in my experience, catching me totally off-guard, and isn’t within a learning environment that I know of’ affecting me in a potently joyous way. Otherwise, I might know something good is coming, but I’m not exactly sure what it is, only that it is on its way, which is less potent and more common in daily life.
Let’s now call the totally unpredictable process the Greater Joy, one that delivers above and beyond.
