Engineering joy, continued

My current understanding of joy (as summarized in my April 30 post) was challenged at a family church retreat this past weekend.

Rev. Justin Almeida, whom I always find interesting and insightful, led a session about finding joy amidst hardship. Justin made the case that we could directly pursue joy and expect positive results by engaging multiple senses in real time and/or by recalling detailed sensory memories.

Justin offered several supporting examples, including the story of a double-leg amputee whose greatest joy used to come from fishing. When encouraged to do so, the man was able to recall many of the sights, sounds, smells, touches, and tastes of a fishing trip and, in doing so, rekindle at least a bit of that joy.

After sharing this vignette, Justin sent us outside with an assignment. “Go find joy!” he commanded. “You have 20 minutes!”

I stepped outside and, without a plan, started down a nice hiking trail.  This was fine, but not joyful.

Before long I came to a branch off of the main trail. A sign marked it as private property. If there was any joy along that branch, it was unavailable to me.

Another factor hampering my joy quest was the fact that I needed to pee. I wondered whether urinating in the woods would constitute an act of joy. Probably not, I decided.

As I wandered further, from the woods I could see a clearing with some tennis courts that I had not previously known about. This might have been a joyful discovery if I had had the time, equipment, and partner(s) for tennis; however, I lacked all of these.

I kept walking while looking toward the clearing. I spied some sort of building. Next to the building was a port-a-potty. A port-a-potty!

I emerged from the woods to take a closer look. The port-a-potty was unlocked and unoccupied! Hurray!

Had I found joy within the 20-minute time limit, just as directed? Or was this feeling more like, say, relief? I wasn’t sure.

If you’re not sure whether what you’re experiencing is joy, maybe it’s not really joy. Or maybe it’s just joy in disguise?