Month of Joy: I Could Never Pick Just One by Becca Evans
My joy is a cycle. I run through a thing until I’m sick of it, then I circle back to it after a little bit of time has passed and forget that I was ever sick of it at all. I never really let go of anything, which means that you might find me sticking around longer than you’d thought — whether that applies to a TV show or a well-loved book or even a podcast like this one. I find that there is never one thing that is giving me more joy than others, so I couldn’t pick just one thing. I did manage to narrow it down to four, but there were some tough choices (and a few dice rolls) involved.
Month of Joy: A Story by Sandra Odell
Skiffy and Fanty came from stage right, banging drums and spangling spangles. “Help us celebrate our Month of Joy! Tell us what makes your heart sing!” I glared at them from the cold prison of the center spotlight. “Go away. Life is 2017, and darkness, and despair, and a sucking miasma of hate and lousy chocolate.” “Are you so sure about that?” said a voice just off-stage. I squinted into the shadows. “Who said that?” Happiness entered stage left; a quiet, joyful presence come from the wings. “Hello, old friend.”
Month of Joy: A Few of my Joyful Things by Kay Kenyon
1. That feeling when I’ve done a good day’s work and I’m going to bed early with a good book that I have already started reading and so I know it’s a good book, unlike brand new reads that may disappoint me and then I have to find a new one and my evening routine is ruined. Oh, this was going to be about JOY and not crushing disappointment, so I soldier on: 2. When the snow all around the neighborhood turns blue for about ten minutes at sunset.
Month of Joy: The Love of My Life by J.A. Pitts
My friends over at the Skiffy and Fanty show are celebrating a new web site and a new year with a month of joy. To do this, they are publishing an essay almost every day in January. I love the show and think this is a wonderful experiment. I’m honored that they asked me to participate, so I thought I’d share the greatest joy in my life. On the one hand, I’m relieved to see 2017 in my rear-view mirror. Politics have infused every corner of my world with anxiety and chaos, adding so much stress that it’s impacted my writing. On the other hand, I’ve got a good job, a fantastic wife, and happy, successful, and healthy adult children. We have an empty nest for the first time and are enjoying the next stage in our lives.
Month of Joy: On Joy by James L. Sutter
When Skiffy and Fanty invited me to write a post about what brings me joy, I knew immediately that I needed to write about my wife, Margo. “Oh great,” you’re thinking. “Another generic, maudlin post about how much somebody loves their spouse.” Well, not exactly. See, eight years ago, Margo got really sick. When the two of us first got together, physical activity was Margo’s life. She was a national-championship-level ultimate frisbee player. She’d recently completed the Pacific Crest Trail, living in the woods for 5 months as she hiked from Mexico to Canada. Our first date was a 6-mile walk around a lake. Girl liked to move.
Zork and the Great Underground Empire — #monthofjoy
West of House You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here. >open mailbox Opening the small mailbox reveals a leaflet. >take leaflet Taken. >read leaflet “WELCOME TO ZORK! ZORK is a game of adventure, danger, and low cunning. In it you will explore some of the most amazing territory ever seen by mortals. No computer should be without one!” Some of the earliest computer games had no graphics whatsoever. With a strictly text based interface, interactive fiction games by companies like Infocom defined a stratum of adventure games in the early and mid 1980’s. The Zork games were set in a fictional fantasy universe revolving around the Great Underground Empire — a civilization built in the ruins of an old, fallen civilization which colonized the realm underneath the earth. With manuals that extended the playground of the imagination, the Zork games were a highlight of Infocom’s worldbuilding in the midst of providing text adventures and puzzles that encouraged the imagination to bring the worlds to life.
