BS: Joy Happens

Subject: BS: Joy Happens
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 01:14 PM

The constitution of the United States guarantees all citizens the right to the "pursuit" of happiness. Not the "experience" of happiness, or the "finding" of happiness.   The pursuit. We all know what pursuit is... chasing after something that's running away from you as fast as its stumpy legs can carry it. They might as well have added after "pursuit of happiness," "Lots of luck!"

And yet, people spend their lives trying to catch up with happiness. When they occasionally do, it turns out to be very ephemeral and the minute you take your eye off it, it's off and running again. I've always thought that a great bumper stick would be "Happiness Is My Next Purchase." Except nobody would buy it (which would dissprove the premise.) The creators of the constitution were very wise men. They didn't even offer any hope of pursuing "joy." That's probably because you can't really pursue joy. Joy happens.

So, what is joy? Got joy? I didn't bother to look it up in the dictionary. Words in the dictionary are like butterflies pinned to a mounting board. You get the bare facts, but often the life is taken out of it. How can you know a butterfly without a summer breeze? Words are like that. They don't radiate their full meaning when pinned in a book. You can find out what the root of the word is, and what is considered the correct useage, but he subtleties are lost. Take for example two related words that have "joy" as their root... "rejoice" and "enjoy." Now, rejoice is exuberant.. shout out loud, joyful. Uncontainable joy. "Enjoy" is much more vapid. If a movie critic says that a movie was "enjoyable," it's not much more of a recommendation than "nice" or even worse, "interesting." Now true joy is a totally different animal.

When you look at your life and think of those times when you've experienced true joy, did it happen because you were actively pursing
it? You can pursue pleasure. We all do that. When I think of the joyful times in my life, they all seem to grow out of some basic qualities. The first is love. Love is what creates joy when I hold my wife in my arms, or I embrace one of my sons after I haven't seen them for many months. Giving can create joy, too. When my gospel quartet gave a concert for one in the home of a recently widowed women in her 90's who went blind shortly after she lost her husband, it was joyful. Not just for her, but for us. Giving has a way of doing that. The third way that I find joy is in creating. All Mudcatters know that joy. I can feel the joy that Bill D experiences when he is turning a bowl on a lathe and he sees the beauty of the form that he is creating with his own hands. We've all felt that at special times when we unexpectedly find a beautiful chord progression or a line to a song that we're writing that we know didn't just come from our own mind.

When I wrote Handful of Songs many years ago, the one line that I had the most discomfort with was "It's not what you leave, it's the joy of remembering." At that time in my life, joy seemed like an unnatainable goal. As difficult to catch as a butterfly. Most days, just not feeling miserable was an improvement. I kept trying to find another way to express myself... "It's the moderately pleasing emotion of remembering," "It the happiness of remembering.." Nothing really worked. Looking back, it says a lot about who I was then that I felt intimidated by using the word joy. I figured that it would sound phony. Holden Caulfield would have snorted at the word. But, even if I didn't have a lot of joy in my life back then, it still seemed like the right word. Now, the line says exactly what I want it to say.

So, what about you folks? What gives you real JOY in your life? Any thoughts that you want to share will be appreciated.

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 01:23 PM

Gay used to mean full of joy.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: Micca
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 01:52 PM

Jerry. I thought it said " Life ,Liberty and the Happiness of Pursuit" :o)

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: Sorcha
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 02:09 PM

My children, my grandson, beautiful days.....music!

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 02:12 PM

Now, if it said that, micca, I'd agree with it.. sometimes you can find happiness in the pursuit.. :-) And sometimes, be happy that you never caught up with what you were chasing..

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: Amos
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 02:34 PM

When daughter Barky and I sit down and share some delight, such as our ideas about writing and why it is great, or make fine blues together or any other moment of high exchange, the world is complete for me.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: fat B****rd
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 02:40 PM

When my granddaughter Charlotte (aged 16 months) gives a huge grin when my aging face appears from under the bedclothes where I've been "hiding", music naturally, security, cosiness and my wife's love.

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: jimmyt
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 03:09 PM

Jerry, it is an accumulation of little things.

Playing music with my gtoup when we haven't played an a long time and absolutely nailing a song dead center.

A harmonic progression with my do-wop group that makes chills it is so in tune

cooking with my daughter and whatever the food, you just get lucky and it tastes like a little bite of heaven

Taking Jayne a cup of coffee in bed before I leave for work in the morning and seeing her smile

Happening on to a place when I travel that seems to speak to me across the ages

An unexpected hug from a patient

watching and listening to a street performer that connects and you know somehow he appreciates you as much as you do him and his music

watching it rain when I am inside and cozy

well, that is just a beginning, I will reflect on this a bit and probably add more.

the gist of it, for me is the saying paraphrased, "Joy is the journey, not the destination."   jimmyt

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: Micca
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 03:33 PM

Joy is encounters with other people, latterly its often been with Mudcatters, some examples, for me
like at
Llanstock, Towersey, Loughstock and more,
but also,
that first couple of hours on the Friday evening at the Getaway, meeting, and re-meeting friends
a certain Sunday lunch with jimmyt at Liz the squeaks
Fortunato and Suzette and Gervase at the "Hoop and Toy".
joy is in people and interacting with them and is Truly the medicine for what ever ails you, that and Singing, and Songwriting and listening to singing and,,,, and,, and,,,,
oh and CatsPHiddle

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 03:38 PM

Just covered your arse there my hirsuite friend {¦¬]>
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: Metchosin
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 03:48 PM

A lot of things, some overwhelming and big and some small, the birth of my daughters, music, holding those whom I love, playing with the dogs and a miriad of things in nature and sometimes, just being alive.

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: Auggie
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 04:54 PM

Interesting thoughts Jerry.
Interesting to me because I too have always thought there was a qualitative difference between happiness and joy, regardless of what Mr. Webster may have had to say about it.

I think you can find some temporary happiness with drugs or possessions or alcohol or sex or even with the company of good friends, and this ain't necessarily a disagreeable part of life.
But Joy, well to me, that's a whole different breed of cat. It lives out there somewhere in the general direction of happiness, but on a whole different plane. Kind of like the difference between infatuation and love, or sound vs. music. I'm not smart enough to quite put my finger on it exactly, but it's infinitely sweeter than happiness, and for me much more elusive and ephemeral but with an afterglow that you can live in for days thereafter.

To me it's also more spiritual in nature.
On the other hand, maybe it's just a chemical imbalance in my brain.

JimmyT's right tho. It's found in the journey, not the destination.

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: Peace
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 05:31 PM

Kind words from friends; getting there in time to save a structure; making a positive difference in someone's life; seeing the 'light' go on in a student's eyes. Realizing that not all people are kind or even well-mannered, but that it takes all kinds to make a world, and their attitudes don't have to be mine. The fraternity at the end of a long accident scene when the patient is in the ambulance and gone, when the trucks are washed and 'put to bed'. When I know in my heart that I have given my best. Stuff like that.

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: Polly Squeezebox
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 05:36 PM

Give me the sight of the green rolling hills
The sky a clear blue overhead
Give me the song of the lark as it soars
Give me soft turf for my bed

From 'Ancient Pathways' a song I wrote three years ago. Well, perhaps getting too old and creaky for the 'soft turf bed' but give me the others and I have real joy.

Pauline

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: Once Famous
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 06:08 PM

Should there be a sister thread to this called "shit happens" ?

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: Joybell
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 06:26 PM

True-Love calls me "his Joy".
It's a name with so many possibilities for puns and the like. I've always liked that. Giving my name triggers an automatic response in people older than I am. "Joy by name, Joy by nature!" they say. Rather sets you up at birth, but for the better I've always thought. Cheers with and from Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: Jeri
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 06:28 PM

Pauline, I'd love to hear that song.

Jerry, the line, "It's not what you leave, it's the joy of remembering" pretty much sums up the whole song, so I'm glad you left it in! All the things you talk about, including the songs, bring the people back in memory. Maybe part of it isn't the joy of remembering, but remembering joy. I tend to try to steer my own moods with songs, cheer myself up and remind myself of what I should feel (if the world were perfect), and maybe that's what you were doing. Maybe you were trying to remind yourself that joy was still possible. I remember feeling joy, and I think I may feel it again sometime. Right now, simply remembering it is important, if only to remind myself I'm capable of feeling it.

For me, I think joy is something that you have to share. I can feel happy without anyone else around, or successful, or any number of good things, but I think joy needs other people. I also think it must contain some element of surprise - something you weren't expecting. You can't plan for it or make it happen.

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: Mr Red
Date: 09 Jan 05 - 05:38 PM

The real Joy in Mr Red's life is Joy. She loves dancing and, well, that is why Mr Red is Jumping with Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: Jeri
Date: 09 Jan 05 - 06:16 PM

Thank you Mr Red! I thought I killed this thread!

Very much related to joy - I'm trying to remember the last time I laughed so hard I got a cramp in my face. I think it was at the 2001 Getaway when Kendall and Max were singing "I'm Busted" (or trying to).

Subject: Lyr Add: ANCIENT PATHWAYS (Pauline Iason)
From: Polly Squeezebox
Date: 09 Jan 05 - 07:04 PM

Jeri,

Sorry, I don't know how to put the music online, but here are the complete words of the song. I live near Avebury in Wiltshire so obviously the references are to the ancient Ridgeway Long Distance Footpath, the Avebury Prehistoric Site (largest stone circle in Europe), Wayland's Smithy (an ancient burial mound where legend says if you leave an unshod horse tethered overnight with a silver coin it will be shod in the morning). The whole area abounds with ancient sacred sites and the chalk downland is very, very beautiful. The white horses are carved in the hillside and packed with the natural chalk, some say they originally dated back to prehistory when Epona the horse goddess was worshipped in the region. I never believe that summer has arrived though until I hear the song of the lark ascending into the sky.

ANCIENT PATHWAYS

When I feel that life is troubled
Pressure looming from all sides
Give me just the simple pleasures
Give me space in which to hide
When the bustle of the city
Gets too much for me to bear
Then I seek the ancient pathways
Where my soul can take the air

Ch. Give me the sight of the green rolling hills
The sky a clear blue overhead
Give me the song of the lark as it soars
Give me soft turf for my bed

Up above the urban valleys
There's a land that's green and free
It's been there since time immortal
It's still there for you and me
Ancient paths up on the ridges
Weave a web across the land
Safe and sure our forebears travelled
With no fear of other's hand

Ch.

Close beside the timeless ridgeway
Lie the sacred sites of yore
Wayland waits within his smithy
To shoe a horse both firm and sure
A'bury's circle holds the power
Of the moon and of the sun
Follow the lines into the centre
Where all hearts can join as one

Ch.

Clumps of trees on rounded hilltops
Chalk white horses on their side
Earthwork castles reaching skyward
Barrows long and round beside
Troubles soothed I travel homeward
On the tracks across the downs
Deep within the peace I carry
That cannot be found in towns

Ch.

© Pauline Iason 21.6.2000


Pauline

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: GUEST,Mudlark
Date: 10 Jan 05 - 04:35 PM

Interesting to think about the diff. if any between joy and happiness. Reading over Jerry's initial post the first thing that came to mind was what I felt when I brought one of our 7-wk old corgi puppies back to life. Sufficated by a falling chair, a case of being in wrong place at the wrong time, he was totally limp when I rescued him, not breathing, no heartbeat. I was frantic, couldn't believe how swiftly his little life had been snuffed out.

I blew into his mouth, pressed his chest, blew again, and again...feeling more and more hopeless. The moment I felt a spark return to his body, even before he began breathing again, I experienced an icredible flood of joy...like being bathed in a brilliant light. Quite a different thing than the joyous happiness I feel every morning, looking out on my rural 5 acres, or the exciting thrill of making music, good friends and conversation, all the grand things in life. Not better, necessarily, just different.

The puppy recovered completely. By the next day he was fine and a couple of weeks later went off to a good home. His owner still sends Mikey, the puppy we kept from that litter, a b'day card every year. That makes me happy!

Subject: RE: BS: Joy Happens
From: ranger1
Date: 10 Jan 05 - 05:19 PM

Joy is that feeling of overwhelming wonder that just happens. I find it at the top of a mountain after a difficult hike, in the sharing of good times with friends and family, standing in the dusk at low tide and watching the herons fish and knowing that I have the park all to myself, when I held my newborn nephew Austin for the first time Eight and a half years ago. Austin Michael is a joy to me, no matter what, and he gave me great joy (once again) this past summer when we discovered that he thinks folk music is "pretty cool." Joy is waking up each and every day after having faced my demons and finding that I had the strength to walk away.