Joy can strengthen our resolve, help us unlock creativity, and bolster our resilience. In Fix’s Joy Issue, we explore the importance and power of finding joy in the face of grief, anger, and a changing climate.
Rachael Baker dropped out of college in 2020 and became a full-time climate organizer. Not long after, George Floyd was killed by the police in Minneapolis and Black Lives Matter uprisings swept the country and the world. “Oh, my god,” Baker says. “I swear that whole summer, my neck just hurt and my body felt empty.”
As a Black woman, Baker thought a lot about her ancestors who endured violence for generations and often turned to the joy of community — making good food, sharing stories, telling jokes — to survive it. “In that laughter,” she says, “you have enough good energy, enough love in you, to keep going and not just fall down.”
For climate organizers, too, joy “is part of our survival kit. It’s how we combat despair,” says Baker. “And we know when we [feel] despair, then they win.”... Read more
