Member-only story
Joy In Motion
What do you want to be when you grow up?
When Jody was a kid she liked to put on shows for her siblings and parents — and anyone else she could persuade to attend. Not until the show began did she know what she would do. The shows were strictly improvisational.
Sometimes she sang. Sometimes she danced. Often she would perform skits or do stand-up comedy. She would also tell stories, making them up as she told them.
Jody had been a performer since she could walk and talk. When asked what she wanted to be when she grew up she shrugged her shoulders and said, “I don’t know. I guess I’ll know when I know.”
But she never knew what she wanted to be until she was in her fifties. Before that she was whatever the situation called for. She was a student then a mother then a bank teller. She kept performing to small crowds such as her husband and three children or small groups of friends or co-workers. She was never very serious about it. It was just something that she naturally did.
When the kids left the nest and the husband traded her in for a younger model Jody was suddenly alone without an audience. She fell into a stultifying depression. Feeling utterly worthless, she never performed for anyone anymore.
