JOY

My birthday triplet (same day same year) Jodi sent me this link of a photo essay about JOY. So interesting to see how many are of children. As we get older, do we allow ourselves such delight? When's the last time that I smiled like that? This makes me think I should find a trampoline and a hose, which seems like the purest recipe for joy I can think of.

However, looking at these as photos, I wonder what happened next. Let's say one of the kids fell of the trampoline and started crying five seconds later and everyone's joy turned to concern. Is joy something that "counts" if it's fleeting? Or must the feeling be sustained for it to be real joy?

Oops, was that a downer?  OK, bringing it back. Bringing it back. One of the many things I love about this essay is that the cumulative effect of these captured moments is to remind us what it feels like, and to remind us how deeply human it is to feel this happy. 

(Also, and I write this on the morning of the blizzard, with winds howling and snow piling up in the Brooklyn streets, judging from this photo series, people are most joyful in warm weather.)