Being Happy in Public

Yesterday, I was walking out of a wedding venue, hand-in-hand with my partner, talking about how beautiful the ceremony was, how in love the newlyweds are, and how much fun it was meeting and talking to the other guests. As we plotted our next move, my partner made a silly joke that made me burst into side splitting laughter.

I have a loud laugh. And, some might say, a loud voice. Which means I wasn’t all that surprised when two folks who hadn’t been at the wedding sort of jumped and turned around to see where the noise came from.

“Oh you really spooked them,” said my partner, both of us still giddy and giggling.

“Yeah, God forbid a girl be joyful,” I joked back.

This, of course, made us laugh more.

As we waited for our car to whisk us back to the hotel, I found myself soaking up the perfect weather, the beautiful event we’d just left, and the general thrill of being young and in love. I found my eyes smiling and I kept thinking about what it means to be publicly happy.

Later that afternoon (it was a morning wedding), I stumbled upon a street market and saw little kids playing soccer in a fenced off area. I bumped into an older couple—him wearing a shirt that was designed as a giant King of Hearts card, her wearing the corresponding Queen of Hearts. She was dancing to a live musician and he was filming her like the proudest man on the square.

In the park, I saw a group of high school girls walking their dogs. They stopped so one could climb a tree and then began shouting to their fourth friend as she appeared on the path, a cat in her backpack and a pinkness to her face at her friends’ public displays of enthusiasm.

I saw a woman walking a Great Dane and another woman stop to ask for a picture. I saw a group of men stop at a craft booth discussing what to get their wives/mothers for Mother’s Day. 

I heard people laughing—loudly. I watched people greeting each other—zealously. I felt excitement—secondhand.

There’s something contagious about joy. 

And if we’re lucky enough to feel it, we should be brave enough to share it.