Joy As Something To Be Made And Given

(I believe I got this idea from somewhere but I don't remember where)

If you look at the etymology of the word "enjoy" you would find that it originated from the Old French "enjoier" which means 'give joy to’. The word was a causative verb. This would make sentences like "I enjoy eating" problematic to understand. How could you give joy to eating? Could the way you eat, the size of your bite, the way you chew, the timing of the swallow, and the pause to savor the taste give joy? Maybe to you but not to the activity of eating. Better still consider the sentence "I enjoy video games". How could one provide joy to software? Playing the game offers joy to the player. That is what it is designed for. (Maybe this is just semantics)

But let's entertain this thought for a little while: What if we are the source of joy? We create it and give it accordingly. And sometimes the joy we create gets reflected back to us. This would mean that the video game is a medium for joy to be transmitted from the makers of the game to us.

The view of joy as something to be made and given changes how we think about our experiences. It suggests that when we want to feel joy we must make it and give it away. It challenges the notion that our circumstance is the determining factor of our quality of life. I don't know if it is true but it may be useful.