I asked Joy today to sit down and write a blog post in response to a comment that was made several days ago asking to get a glimpse into the world of Joy. She said, "Oh no... that's not me. I don't do this (pointing at my computer) thing." For those who don't personally know my wife Joy, she is a silent force; a constant motion akin to a kinetic generator producing ________ for the sake of others.
Right now she's giving Aubrey a pedicure. A little bit later she'll start preparing a meal for a game night with the ladies at our church. She informed me that today she'll be getting the girls Target gift cards to take back to school with them... always thinking of someone else the last thought in her mind is to sit down and put in words what "she" is doing... or, eegadds! What she's thinking. Not that she doesn't think and as you can see, she's not lazy, Joy just doesn't understand why anyone would care about the things rattling around in her brain. "I just don't get it... I just don't get it." She says walking out of the family room. As many times as I've tried to explain it, she won't know the difference between Typepad and Twitter because she doesn't care. Her idea of communication and staying connected is a good ol'fashioned phone call or a cup of coffee sitting at the table of one of her many friends. To understand why this is so important to her you have to know a little bit of the history behind her self-imposed simplicity.
Joy began ice skating as soon as she could stand up. Her mom and dad were professional ice skaters, traveling the country with the Ice Follies which meant, until the age of 14, she traveled nine months out of the year, was tutored rather than experiencing K through 7th grade and eventually a featured skater in costumes (she was Woodstock when the show licensed the rights to "Peanuts" from Charles Schultz). After her family settled down in the San Fernando Valley she began the adjustments to "normal" life and public school. But that was short lived when she began taking featured rolls in television shows which led to a costarring roll as a young ice skater falling in love with her hockey turned figure skating partner, Jimmy McNichol in "Champions: A Love Story." Her face was on the cover of TV Guide and Teen Beat and for a kid who lived her entire life in the public eye it became all too much resulting in a retreat to privacy that would make this last paragraph uncomfortable for her.
Simple; my wife's life is simple and she likes it that way. So, if you want to know what's going on with Joy here's what she prefer you do. Give her a call or better yet. Drop by for a cup of coffee. But you better call first. She might just be out doing something for someone else.
