The poet Toi Derricotte begins her poem from "The Telly Cycle" with the line: "Joy is an act of resistance." In the poem, Derricotte writes about her fish, Telly. She places a postcard-sized painting behind his bowl, wondering whether he notices the beauty she has arranged for him. What follows is a tender meditation on wonder, connection, loss, and the tiny moments that make a life feel meaningful. (Curious? You can read the complete poem here.) Joy is an act of resistance. I find myself thinking about that line a lot lately. In a world overflowing with politics, productivity hacks, algorithms, breaking news, and endless notifications, I've become increasingly interested in finding small pockets of joy. Tiny acts of connection. Unexpected moments of humanity. Which brings me to @Joseph Isosaki. A few weeks ago, Joseph posted something on Skool that may go down as one of the most important contributions to modern civilization: GIF WARS. The instructions were simple: "... only GIFS ... this is the best use of your time right now! ... a loving reminder to keep Skool fun!" Below the post was a GIF of Napoleon Dynamite getting slapped. I immediately felt called and responded with a GIF of Bruce Lee looking impossibly cool, accompanied by a comment about "an outrageous misuse of productivity." Unfortunately, I didn't fully understand the assignment. GIFs only. No commentary. Joseph immediately countered with a cartoon character aggressively shushing me, which made me laugh out loud. Unfortunately for Joseph, my partner and I had recently rewatched all three Austin Powers films, and suddenly all I could hear was Dr. Evil screaming, "Zip it!" from the depths of my delightfully distracted brain. And so began a completely unnecessary, deeply important, and wildly entertaining GIF battle, fueled largely by Austin Powers and his wonderfully ridiculous cast of characters.