AMONG OTHER THINGS: ‘JOY’ TO THE WORLD!
BATTERED AND BRUISED, ‘JOY’ OVERPOWERS ‘LOVE’
by Boots LeBaron
Joy is a three letter word that’s fueled by fear, romance, humor, failure, triumph, even death.
Regardless of how Shakespeare, Frost, Browning or Dickinson might disagree — they’re all dead poets — I’m convinced that JOY is finally capable of coming off the ropes and knocking LOVE out of the scholarly ring of life! For too many centuries Joy has played second fiddle to Love. My mission, at the moment, is to prove that Joy, despite its diminutive literary stance, is now capable of steamrolling the schmoozy four-letter expression into second place on society’s sweet talk scale. For Joy, the feisty little twit has become what Rocky Balboa was to Apollo Creed, and David and his trusty slingshot was to Goliath: A victorious underdog. The hackneyed line, “I love you,” now belongs under glass at the Smithsonian. Granted, the phrase, “You give me Joy,” might sound trite to some hang’ers on. So what? Love has become an insincere cliché (ask any bartender) while Joy packs a powerful emotional wallop! SHAZAM!!!
For testimonial proof read on:
MOTHER WELCOMES HER NEWBORN
DAUGHTER INTO THE WORLD
Lori Pettinato works at the Village
Coffee Bean in Manhattan Beach, Calif.
Recently she gave birth to daughter
Callie. “Joy,” she explained, “comes after
you’ve gone through the pain of childbirth,
screaming, grunting, gasping for breath,
forcing your child into the world…
That’s the ultimate joy of motherhood!”
MEN WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND THE TRUE
MEANING OF LOVE FOR A BABY UNLESS…
Seated at an adjoining table
at the Coffee Bean, Emily, an
attractive brunette, cradled
Kai, her infant son in her arms.
“Men,” she said, “will never understand the
true meaning of love for a baby
until they’ve given birth to one…”
She got me there. The closest thing
to experiencing childbirth for me
was when I had a vasectomy. And that hurt
something awful. As Emily gently caressed
her baby, she added, “Kai is my JOY.”
JOHN YORK, RECORD HOLDING LONG DISTANCE
SWIMMER, DIDN’T LET A PARTY CRASHER RUIN
HIS JOYFUL BIRTHDAY BASH
John York is a swimming coach and
record holding long distance swimmer
from Manhattan Beach, Calif. He told
me about an unforgettable 40th birthday
he celebrated in October 2000. It was
a private affair unlike any ever staged.
Anywhere. He was completing a 22-mile
round trip swim from Catalina Island to
the mainland when he bumped into an
unexpected party crasher. “It was four
in the morning,” said John. “The water
was florescent when this Great White
brushes against me. It was big.
Maybe ten or twelve feet long.
I could feel its scales but I didn’t panic.
Just kept swimming. It did scare the hell out
of my sister Barb and dad (Bob) who were
in a boat watching. We get a lot of blue sharks
in the channel. But very few Great Whites.” It
was the sixth time York made that distance swim.
The good news, of course, was that the
huge predator didn’t attack, allowing
John to complete his birthday celebration
alive and unscathed. When he finally
touched shore at Palos Verdes, he
realized that not only did a Great White
make John’s 40th unforgettable, Jaws
didn’t gobble him up. “Joyful is an
understatement,” he said. “If a big
fish ignored you while swimming the channel,
wouldn’t that be reason enough to let joy
get the best of you? It did me!” he laughed.
JOY SUMS UP CARDIOLOGIST BRUCE
JACKSON’S MEANINGFUL PROFESSION
Here are a few words about life from
my cardiologist, Bruce Jackson:
“We reinvent ourselves every day! I’d
pay good money to do what I’m doing
right now,” said Dr. Jackson. “For
me, Joy just about sums up my line
of work.”
MEET ‘PROFESSOR’ LUKE BERTALDO CORTESE,
MY SPECIAL NEEDS GRANDSON
When I asked my daughter Brooke
Cortese to explain what joy means to her,
she said, “When I come across some mothers
with or without special needs kids, a few
of them just stare at my son, Luke, who’s
developmentally delayed. They can’t figure
why I’m so content, so happy. I tell them to
look for joy. If you don’t have joy in your life,
it can be very hard to find. Thanks to Luke,
I found it. So did my family. At times, I’ve
overheard [my husband] Rocco when he’s in
a room alone with Luke. More than once,
he’s told Luke, ‘I’m so lucky… I’m
going to keep you forever!’ It’s not an act.
He’s not blowing smoke. Rocco cares
deeply for all of our mischief makers.
The words come from his heart.”
I’ve described my grandson Luke as
“the family professor” because throughout his
twelve years of life, he has taught all of
us so much about ourselves. He’s just learning
to walk. He speaks with eyes that smile.
His twin brother Max and sister Natalia, love
him. Because of Luke, the Cortese clan
are intimately acquainted with joy.
SHE GRADUATED MAGNA CUM LAUDE FROM THE DMV!
For my wife, JoAnne, joy was receiving
a perfect score on a California driver’s
exam she took recently at the Department of Motor
Vehicles. She crammed for that test like her life
depended on it. When she returned home,
she called all of our kids and grand kids
with the ‘breaking news.’ Joy for my mate
was an understatement.
A FATHER STILL SPEAKS TO HIS U.S. ARMY
MEDIC SON KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN IN 2007
At midnight, on many occasions,
Tony Rogue, an architectural designer
from Carson, California told me,
he goes into his backyard to talk to
his son, Cpl. Lester G. Roque, a
23-year-old US combat medic who in
2007 was killed during an intense
firefight with the Taliban. His
outfit, the 273rd Airborne Brigade,
was ambushed high on a mountainside
in Afghanistan. “Knowing that in
those last minutes of his life, my
son was trying to save the lives of
two comrades, that was a gift my
wife Liza and I will always cherish.
He left us with a feeling of pride,
even joy, that’s almost indescribable.
Lester knows we love him. That’s what
counts.”
PARENTHOOD NEVER ENDS FOR THIS R.N.
Nurse Yvonne Hashimoto will
testify that “parenting never ends. As a
single parent, raising three kids you love,
it was an experience that occasionally caused
me to shed a few tears of joy. Of course,
there were times I developed a twitch.” Of course, Yvonne
was joking. In fact, she admitted that one of her
many joys was “guiding the little darlings through
their teen-age years. We all mature in different
ways. That includes mothers, too. But it’s no
secret: My kids brought joy into my life. And
besides,” she went on, “now they’re too old to spank.”
WORLD FOCUSES ON SPACECRAFT DESIGN
AND SPACE MISSION ANALYSIS.
Physicist James Wertz is a world renowned
authority on space mission analysis and design.
When we first met and I asked what he did for
a living, he replied, “We build spacecraft.”
When I asked, “What do the spacecraft do?” He shot
me a puzzled gaze and said, “They fly into space.”
What did he expect from a guy who flunked Chemistry
at Los Angeles High School? “If you weren’t
involved in all this outer space stuff, what
would you be doing?” I asked. The husky, white
bearded president of Microcosm, Inc. replied,
“I’d probably be driving a cab.” He didn’t
crack a smile until I laughed. Here’s a guy
with five published highly technical books
about spacecraft that fly into space, with
a hell of a sense of humor. So I pressed on:
How do you feel when one of your spaceships
reach the next stage of development? “Naturally,”
he said, “I experience euphoria, a feeling of
joy… Isn’t that what we’re getting at here?”
His wife, Alice, chief financial officer of Microcosm,
explained that “Jim is incredibly passionate about
his work. And that joy relates to the work you’re
researching.” When I told Alice that I hesitated
to ask her husband if he ever thought of naming
one of his spaceship projects a Wertzmobile? She laughed
and said, “He probably wouldn’t appreciate that.”
For scientific reasons, I decided not to ask the
magic question. I didn’t want to be sent on a one way
trip to Mars because it wasn’t on my vacation list.
Besides, Matt Damon who stars as an astronaut in
the newly released blockbuster movie, “The Martian,”
had already made that trip.
PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR MEETS JOY
Joy for Don Breem, a former professor of psychology
at UCLA and Whittier College, “exhilaration is a
reaction to internal and external events. After a
heart attack, when I was released from the hospital
and discovered I was still breathing, for me, that
was a joyous occasion,” he said with a smile.
END
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