13 Oct 2026
Letters To Haywood Fudd: Joy to Just Me
January 26th , 2025
Dear Mr. Fudd,
I also finished reading your piece of literature. Not thumbing through, I read every beautiful word and hoped the recipients had as much fun as I did. The title “pure bliss” is fitting, though I was also reminded of the following quote that I recently read on the wall of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, right above the donut making robot:
“We all crave experiences that bring more joy to our lives.”
I’ve read a lot of words about the word “joy” written by CS Lewis, but I think the marketing gurus at the donut shop summed it up just as well as Mr. Lewis and with fewer needs for re-reading the line multiple times for comprehension.
Your book brought me joy.
I never watched any of Mr. Knievel’s stunts, but one of my favorite movie quotes is from the Bruce Willis and Liv Tyler classic apocalypse movie Armageddon.
“Have you ever heard of Evel Knievel?”
“No, I’ve never seen Star Wars.”
Gets me every time. Which is about two times. You don’t really need to re-watch Armageddon the movie.
C.S. Beaty
…
Definition
bliss: noun
1. perfect happiness, contentment, joy: a rack of hickory smoked ribs and cold beer is pure bliss.
2. Shangri-La: the sanctuary where The Prime Architect holds court and where no one can screw you over.
3. Place: Bliss, Idaho
I think my newsletter will bring you joy. Or happiness. Or contentment. Or pure bliss.
Words are just containers for ideas. I heard a pastor say that once in a sermon. It was a good point since pastors tend to use weird church language. People nod their heads at it because it’s familiar, but they have no real grasp of what it means. Sanctification. Edification. Salvation. Propitiation. All these —TION words become cliche from overuse, but their meanings are fraught with theological conviction and argument, which can be avoided if the preacher simply uses some five syllable —TION word and assumes that whatever working definition comes to mind is the one God wants. It’s easier that way.
A good sermon trick is to pick one of these words and give it some interesting new definition. And the word that gets the makeover treatment most often is “joy.”
It really was C.S. Lewis’s favorite word, or at least the one he obsessed over the most. He used “joy” to describe some intense longing that often goes unsatisfied. That pit-of-the-stomach sort of visceral response to some moment of beauty that you want to experience forever, but it slips through your fingers as soon as you grab hold. To C.S. Lewis, “joy” is fleeting, but the desire for it is proof that there is something more. Something beyond our own world. Because to Lewis, never being able to achieve that “joy” in a permanent state sounds unbearable. It can’t be the truth. It sounds like hell.
Sometimes that’s the definition of “joy” the pastor uses in his sermon, but typically not. Usually, it’s some idea that you can be “joyful” even when you’re not “happy.” The implication is that “happiness” is fleeting but “joy” is permanent. At least if you’re doing it right. Obviously the “s**t happens” truism tells us that happiness can’t be permanent, but you can still be “joyful” when said “s**t happens.”
The implication quickly becomes that you don’t need to be happy.
And most people aren’t.
Certainly, most people I’ve met aren’t.
Certainly, most pastors I’ve met aren’t.
But doesn’t this all just feel exhausting? At a certain point, doesn’t the slicing of definitions reach its limit and turn into utter b******t? If the idea you’re trying to contain with a word is “I’m not happy but I think I should be” then we probably don’t need to try to fit that emotion into a single word that people already use for something else. Some things are better experienced without all the extra thought. So, when Haywood Fudd sent me a copy of his 2023 letters in his book titled “Pure Bliss,” I knew what he meant. And reading it was.
But just in case you didn’t understand, I still liked the definition he gave at the beginning of his book. The one where “happiness,” “contentment,” “joy,” and “bliss” all mean the same thing.
Because if you are “happy,” “content,” “joyful,” or “blissful”—they do all mean the same thing. It’s only unhappy people who need to give those words new definitions.
…
Book Report III: Things I’ve Been Thinking About
Enjoy your writing style. Some random personal points of order from your book:
· Houston: A long-ago coworker told me that a couple of knuckleheads who worked for him went to Houston on business, found themselves adequately lacquered in a strip club, ran out of cash, and then sold their rental car for $100. Suffice it to say, it didn’t turn out so well for them.
· Most meetings are damning echo-chambers that only waste time.
· With American kids reading less and less, I would find it a crime against literature to punish any kid who stole a book.
· Freakonomics is excellent. I believe I’ve read every John Krakauer book. I’ve never heard of David Sedaris until reading your book. Regarding books about Nebraska, I recommend Once Upon a Town by Bob Greene.
· My brother and I were the youngest people to receive a library card in our town. That was back in the Dewey Decimal System days that categorized books with numbers and letters and dashes and closed and open parentheses, and such.
· Been a KC Chiefs fan since Christmas Day, 1971, when I watched the Chiefs lose to the Miami Dolphins in a triple overtime game that lasted seven hours.
· Not an autograph collector, though I’ve collected an autographed Hank Aaron poster, Stan Musial jersey, and two baseballs (Willie Stargell and Willie Mays).
· Some Husker players once came close to massacring my family and me due to careless driving. They sheepishly offered to give me their autographs. I told them to go f**k themselves.
· Regarding fiat money, I propose The Creature from Jekyll Island.
· My brother has hundreds of autographed pucks from HOF hockey players including a Phil Esposito and a Tony Esposito puck. If you haven’t watched the movie “Slap Shot” you are denying yourself one of life’s most delicious treats.
· Routinely tell people I met Elvis and members of his Memphis Mafia in 1974 in the parking lot of the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota.
· There aren’t any significant differences between Grand Island and Kearney other than the wildly embarrassing Great Platte River Road Archway Monument.
· More chapter and verse to follow...
Haywood
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