I am convinced that if we are to survive the wait of justice and liberation, we must become people capable of delight. And people who have been delighted in.

Some of us go our whole lives without ever being—or rather, knowing that we are—truly enjoyed by a person. We can become cynical about communal affirmation, hoping that our affirmation of self will suffice. We try to meet our self-hatred with the sound of our own voice, because this, for whatever reason, is seen as a superior strength. But I think we were made to be delighted in. And I think it takes just as much strength to believe someone’s joy about you as it does to muster it all on your own. We shouldn’t need to choose self-affirmation at the expense of the affirmation of another. I think we were meant for both. We need both a personal and a communal praxis that actively resists our self-hatred. Sometimes we must declare peace and tenderness over our own bodies. But sometimes we need the sound of another’s voice to celebrate us. Joy plays no small part in that.

~ Cole Arthur Riley, This Here Flesh

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