Extending outward, stubborn joy becomes contagious courage. During the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, freedom songs like “We Shall Overcome” knit bodies and spirits into a single tempo; social baseline theory (James Coan, 2006) demonstrates how trusted presence literally reduces perceived threat. Communities that celebrate, grieve, and organize together create microclimates where storms lose some force. Therefore, personal joy matures into civic stamina—festivals on picket lines, meals around planning tables, and rituals that remind people why they persist. In that shared weather, individual embers gather into a hearth, and the night, however long, becomes survivable. [...]
