海角大神

Ashley Lisenby: Welcome to 鈥淩ethinking the News鈥� by 海角大神. I鈥檓 Ashley Lisenby, one of its producers. Each holiday season, editors and writers discuss some of the most meaningful stories of the year. 聽This year, staff will discuss stories that exemplify five main themes: faith, gratitude, love, hope, and joy.聽Today鈥檚 theme is joy.

Listen as Home Forum Editor Owen Thomas talks with correspondents Murr Brewster and Robert Klose about the joy they identify and express through essay writing for The Home Forum.

[INTRO MUSIC]

Owen Thomas: Hello, Murr and Robert. You both should be flattered that when the planning group for this conversation thought about joy, they thought about you. Our readers agree, based on what I鈥檝e heard. You鈥檝e both provided many joyful nonfiction personal essays for The Home Forum, which has been a feature in the Monitor for more than a century. You鈥檝e written about everything from tiny islands off the coast of Iceland and your adoption of two orphaned boys from Russia, to lenticular clouds and helping hordes of frogs across a busy highway in the rain, as I recall. But first, let鈥檚 hear a little bit more about yourselves. Robert, let鈥檚 start with you.

Robert Klose:聽I live in Maine, in the wilds of Maine, but I grew up in New Jersey, and I came to writing pretty early due to the graces of a very inspiring teacher in college, in my freshman English comp class. And her encouragement was all I needed to hear because I think the idea of writing was always in me. And so writing has always accompanied me through my adult life, at least. And what I really enjoy, of course, is that whatever emotional response I can get from a reader, good or bad, or indifferent. And in my understanding, any response is good. And, but I make my primary bread by teaching at the University of Maine.

Thomas: Robert, when was your first essay in the Monitor, do you remember?聽

Klose:聽I sure do. And it wasn鈥檛 a Home Forum essay. It was in 1986. I had just come back from a year in Germany. I had a Fulbright year. And I had a very compelling experience while I was in Germany, and I took a side trip to Poland and I visited actually one of the concentration camps there. And it made a tremendous impact on me. And so I just wrote a very short essay called 鈥淩oses of Majdanek,鈥� and Majdanek聽was the name of the camp. And I sent it to the Monitor and I鈥檓 not sure how high my hopes were for publication, but they actually called me and they said they wanted to print the piece and more delighted I couldn鈥檛 be.

Thomas: OK, thank you. And Murr, what about you? And while you鈥檙e at it, would you please explain the mystery of your first name?

Murr Brewster: Well, there鈥檚 nothing terribly special about it. I was christened Mary. Mary Elizabeth Brewster. And for whatever reason, in college, people started calling me Murray instead of Mary. And then it got shortened to Murr. And when I moved out to Portland, Oregon, I just started introducing myself that way because it was different. And people remember it. And the only interesting thing about it is I married a man whose mother was named Mary, and her friends called her Murray.

Thomas: Do you want to say a little more about yourself?

Brewster:聽Yeah. I grew up in Virginia and went to college in New England, and I got a biology degree. And what I did with that biology degree was I moved to Portland and became a letter carrier, which was a great job for me because it was fun and useful and straightforward. And I punched a time clock every day, which a lot of people don鈥檛 think much of. But I love it because it allowed me to punch out every day, which the glory of that should be 鈥� should resonate with some people out there. I did that for 31 years, and then the best part was it led me to my dream job, which is retired letter carrier. Right before I retired, I started writing. And it was really the first writing I鈥檇 done since I was in high school, believe it or not. And I haven鈥檛 stopped. Or at least no one has stopped me.

Thomas:聽Good for you. We will not stop you. A lot of your writing points to the serendipitous nature of joy. Recently, you wrote about your journey of self-discovery as an adolescent into early adulthood. I鈥檝e always enjoyed your honesty, your perspective, and your humor. But in this particular essay, I also enjoyed your first-person view of the opening up of choices for young women. How does this particular essay reflect joy?

Brewster:聽Oh, well, you鈥檙e right. I鈥檓 very lucky. I鈥檓 no stranger to joy, and I write about it a lot. Though in fact, the two examples you gave were really good ones the ... the frogs and my personal chickadee, also, Studly Windowson, lands on my hand, thumps my heart every single time. But this story you鈥檙e talking about wasn鈥檛 about that kind of moment of joy, but it鈥檚 still related, I think. It鈥檚 about how we learn really early on to mold ourselves to other people鈥檚 expectations, or maybe what we perceive to be their expectations. And then every layer of pretense we add, it pushes us that much further away from who we really are.

If we鈥檙e lucky, we get a pretty good run at a happy childhood. And then in adolescence, we start to let other people tell us who we should be. I think it can take a long time to chip away at the pretense and rediscover your authentic self, but it鈥檚 worth it because it takes a lot of energy to maintain, oh, falseness. I guess you鈥檇 say it鈥檚 all-consuming and it鈥檚 distracting. It keeps you from seeing the world around you and all of the moments of joy that are there for the noticing. For me, most of joy has to do with that: Noticing. We have to quiet ourselves so we can pay attention. So I鈥檇 say most moments of joy are serendipitous, but you can learn to be ready for them.

Thomas: I like what you said about peeling away those layers. I accused you of being brave the other day. You resisted it a little bit, but it is really brave to be your authentic self and to not worry about all those layers falling on top of you again.

Brewster: Well, thank you.

Thomas: Robert, you wrote a piece in October about apple picking with the child you were paired with in the Big Brother program. It was another example to me of how confident and competent you are at finding and sharing joy. What made apple picking especially joyous to you, something you wanted to share?

Klose: I think, generally, joy kind of goes hand in hand with moving through life 鈥� I don鈥檛 know if I want to say slowly, but more slowly than this society demands. If one鈥檚 not rushing from place to place and one is not overworking, let鈥檚 say, that slack and pace just allows one to see and hear more. And in the case of the apple picking, I set Saturdays aside for this child in the Big Brother program and I do not do any school work on Saturdays. I don鈥檛 answer emails on Saturdays to do with school. I don鈥檛 answer phone calls to do with school. I don鈥檛 grade papers. Because if I were to relent, I would be doing schoolwork seven days a week most of those days, most of the hours in those days. So Saturday is kind of sacrosanct. So that鈥檚 my date to move slowly. And with this child, as I said in the essay, he was somewhat resistant to the idea of apple picking in the age of computer games. So I was 鈥� I didn鈥檛 know what to expect when I got him to the orchard.

But when we got there and he saw the size of these Wolf River apples, they were as big as melons, some of them. He just 鈥� his joy was just effervescent. And so what that points up is that incidences of joy are moments, the moments that we have to kind of seize hold of. And I always like to go back to the poem by Carl Sandburg called 鈥淛oy.鈥� And he starts by saying, 鈥淟et a joy keep you. Reach out your hands and take it when it runs by. Because if you don鈥檛, then, of course, it will recede.鈥� And that was the import of the apple picking. This was my moment with Sebastian and his joy was contagious and I shared it with him. And so for that brief hour, that鈥檚 what we had. And then the moment receded. Now we have a memory of it.

Thomas: We all discovered you, me, and Murr discovered that we all carry around three-by-five cards or a notebook to write down things as they ... as they strike us, as they occur to us that you have to be alert to joy. Not only that, you should probably write it down if you鈥檙e going to write about it later.

Brewster: If you have a memory like mine, you鈥檇 better write it down.

Thomas: Lastly, let鈥檚 talk a little bit about joy itself. Murr and Robert, what do you think 鈥� is experiencing joy something that can be taught? Is there a blueprint for joy? Is joy even something that can be sought as an end in itself, or is it simply the outcome of something else? Robert, you want to start?

Klose: As a teacher, my impulse is to say joy cannot be taught in the pedagogical sense, but it can be modeled. And I have one class, for instance, of fifteen 18-year-olds at the university. And every so often I can sense their stress level or the frantic nature of the lives they lead. And I鈥檒l 鈥� and what I did a couple of weeks ago is I said, 鈥淓verybody put down your pens. Close your books.鈥� And I had a bag next to my chair. I had baked them brownies. I said, 鈥淭his is what 鈥� we鈥檙e not going to do 鈥楾he Odyssey鈥� right now by Homer. Here鈥檚 what we鈥檙e going to do. We鈥檙e going to eat these brownies.鈥� And that鈥檚 what we did.

So in that sense, I didn鈥檛 say to them, 鈥淟et鈥檚 take a moment to be joyous.鈥� But I think that was a reflection of our capacity for it. And as I often tell them, I don鈥檛 talk about joy in any direct sense, but I do say, 鈥淟ook, some day you鈥檙e going to graduate. No one鈥檚 going to care about your grades. What you鈥檙e going to remember is having each other. You鈥檙e going to remember this class, I hope, and maybe you will have learned a few things. And that鈥檚 it.鈥� So I look at joy in terms of modeling rather than in any and any kind of overt communication of the sentiment.

Thomas: Well, it聽also speaks to your wanting to provide an opportunity to share joy. That鈥檚 critical, too, I think.

Klose: Well, I think I always believed if students know 鈥� and I鈥檓 speaking as a teacher again 鈥� if they know that you care about them, they鈥檒l do anything for you.

罢丑辞尘补蝉:听Wow.

碍濒辞蝉别:听And I just have to give you one more anecdote. A couple of years ago, I was teaching about great white sharks for goodness鈥� sake, and one of the girls started to yawn. And so I said to them, 鈥淓veryone, put your books down, put your pens down. I want you to put your heads on your desk, and I鈥檒l tell you when to wake up.鈥� And I let them take a 10-minute nap and I woke them up and we proceeded from there.

罢丑辞尘补蝉:听Wow.

碍濒辞蝉别:听So I guess that what the message is: Part of joy is not taking things too seriously, 鈥榗ause too seriously can dampen joy.

Thomas:聽Wow. Thanks. Thanks, Robert. Murr, what about you?

Brewster:聽I want some brownies now, but...

Thomas:聽Take a nap. I鈥檓 going to take a nap.聽

Brewster: So I don鈥檛 know if you can hunt it down and throw a net over it, but absolutely you can give yourself a better chance to sort of trip over it. It鈥檚 鈥� the way I see it, it鈥檚 like there are seeds of joy everywhere. But you have to prepare the soil, which might mean really critically looking at where the noise and clutter is in your life. The busyness, the overconsumption, which if anybody鈥檚 paying attention, you realize that has diminishing returns. Quit accumulating stuff and see if maybe the internet can get along without you for a while and go outside and have a look around. I鈥檇 also say give yourself a chance to be surprised. I kind of appreciate that you mentioned that frog piece that 鈥� if anybody hasn鈥檛 read that essay, I鈥檓 a member of a team that gets together on winter nights, on cold, rainy winter nights and collects frogs as they migrate across a busy highway and we ferry them across to the swamp that they鈥檙e aiming at. And that鈥檚 wonderful enough in itself. I mean, you cannot be unhappy when you鈥檙e catching a frog, you can鈥檛.

But one time, a cool thing was I was all bent over crouching in the rain, going for a frog. And suddenly I noticed there鈥檚 this sort of curvy, sinuous crack in the pavement and a salamander had slid right in there, like pie filling. I probably woke up the whole swamp, whooping and hollering then. It was just amazing. It still makes me smile. So I think you can also aim yourself at joy a little bit by knowing where it鈥檚 likely to hang out waiting for you. Because we鈥檙e all different. My whole day can be made if I read a great phrase from a really gifted writer. Sometimes I come across something so good I actually yelp when I read it and I memorize it and carry it around with me in case there鈥檚 a joy shortage and I need it later.

Thomas:聽I think both of you have helped our readers experience more joy. Once you discover it, and I think it is a discovery, joy is so easy to share, and if you鈥檙e the least bit receptive to the joy being shared, it will find its way into your consciousness and multiply. So thank you, Murr and Robert, for helping our readers to see and experience more joy.聽

[TRANSITION MUSIC]

Lisenby: Thanks for listening. If you liked this episode, share it with your friends 鈥� and find the full set of staff interviews at CSMonitor.com/MeetTheMonitor. You can also give the gift of Monitor journalism. Visit CSMonitor.com/Holiday for our discounted holiday offer.聽

[END]