Art Activism

Fangirls and Boys Do Their Part

Lillian Beauregarde on 01 15, 2010

RAAAWR MORE JOY!!!

For those of you who weren’t aware, yesterday was More Joy Day. What is this wondrous event? A few years ago, a fangirl friend of mine named SDWolfpup posted the following plea after several of us had experienced a 2007 that would have killed lesser humans.

Awhile back, I was reading the American Idol recaps over on Televisionwithoutpity.com and I came to this paragraph, written by the recapper Jacob:

Some dick cuts you off on the highway, and you give yourself the pass to be a dick to the next five customers, and your bad mood fades by lunchtime, and you forget the dick on the highway, you forget the color of his car, you forget how he was on the phone with his ex-wife, yelling about custody of their kids, and how he never meant to cut you off in the first place, he was just distracted. Your day continues as planned, and at lunch you check your websites and read a funny recap, and you maybe laugh out loud, and you go home and watch TV. But those five guys give themselves the pass to be dicks to the next five — they’re having a bad day, so it’s okay just this once, and they’re happy again by lunch — and those twenty-five become six hundred twenty-five, and those six twenty-five become a million, and you’ve added to the sum total of anger in the world. But it works with love, too, and kindness. … Your donation is something tangible, but what it means is something altogether more powerful, and it’s that you continue to stand, and you continue to remember that you’re not alone, and with reverence for this fact, you can’t help but add to joy. Which is your entire job, from the day you’re born until the day you die: more joy.

Read her whole post here

“I think it’s brave to try to be happy.”

Thusly, More Joy Day was born. Through the efforts of hundreds of people, joy has been spread for three years now. Stories have been written with no other expectation than to bring a smile to the face of the person it was written for… and maybe a few others in the process. People spend hours, days, weeks …months on projects for More Joy Day. Hours in front of complex graphics programs and editing software have been spent with the idea that such extensive work would help balance out some of the terrible things going on in this world. It’s one of those explosions of giddy happiness and I can absolutely see where joy and excitement are contagious.

“We love because we can.”

Why all of the Pushing Daisies pictures? I loved that show. It makes me smile simply to think about it and when something warms your heart like that, you have to share… plus… I love that show. There was nothing that wasn’t AWESOME about that show. I’ve the first season on DVD and it’s so absolutely worth watching over and over. Such a beautifully colored show too… but I digress. More Joy Day!!!

Just because the day’s over doesn’t mean you can’t keep spreading joy! Send someone a letter. Call your mother to thank her for having you. Call your dad and tell him why he means so much to you. Send a card to a friend you haven’t seen in a while. I promise, the simple act of doing something to make someone else smile will put one on your face too.

And because I can’t help but end on a nerdy note (not that this entire post wasn’t nerdy) I give you a video made by someone for More Joy Day to the television show Big Bang Theory. I truly thought life couldn’t get more awesome… Oh but it has.

Find more videos like this on BAM Vid Vault

Last 5 posts by Lillian Beauregarde

• Seething anger... - January 21st, 2010
• Grey's Anatomy - The Soundtrack is Better - January 19th, 2010
• And for those of us who have less than fluffy bunny feelings about Twilight - January 18th, 2010
• Women in Pop Music, a sung commentary - January 18th, 2010
• Up Video For Your Consideration - January 17th, 2010