61. Bearing Witness to Wounded Landscapes with Trebbe Johnson, author of Radical Joy For Hard Times
How can we create beauty and discover joy in a world so badly wounded by the machinations of our modern culture?
This is a question that Trebbe Johnson strives to answer, both philosophically and in practice, through her work with Radical Joy For Hard Times.
I was so moved by Trebbe's book — also called Radical Joy For Hard Times — when I read it last fall that I ended up joining the Board of Directors for Rad Joy, because I felt that the organization's mission lined up quite neatly with my own: to learn how to deal with and heal with damaged and degraded landscapes, and to encourage others to do the same.
In this conversation, Trebbe and I talk about:
how she came to start the organization;
how we, as individuals, and as a culture, might come to terms with the wounded places that surround us;
how and why to practice radical joy;
the role of activism in the face of overwhelming obstacles;
and why, according to Albert Camus, "one must imagine Sisyphus happy" even as he absurdly pushes a boulder up a mountain for eternity.
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To learn more about Radical Joy For Hard Times and the upcoming Global Earth Exchange, click here.
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Today’s theme song is called “Clear Mind Canine”, written and recorded by me especially for this episode. Subscribers who pledge $5 or more on Patreon can download this tune along with all the others in my ever-growing podcast music archive, including my most recent full-length album, Bliss, released in April 2019.