A Family Tribute #4

a small order of business before i go on to tribute my little sister...
i have moved my e-mail over to failure.to.reply@gmail.com.
could anyone on here who reads this and who i might e-mail at some point send me an e-mail so i know that you know what my new address is...there, got that out of the way.

what to say about joylyn...
well, the most obvious and cool part about her is that she is so much like me.
does anymore need to be said?

she, like mark and i, has the same competitiveness and has made the same bad decisions in dating, except in the boy department instead of the girl one. sorry joy, i had to bring it up. watch it daniel thue, i'm out to get you still. she has the same sense of humor, and i love her to death. she is such an awesome person and i have so much fun when i'm with her. we didn't always get along though...

when she was a kid, she used to do this thing that would drive me nuts. she would make sure to always come give me a hug and say the same thing every night, 'good night, i love you, speak to you in the morning'. now, the fact that it drove me nuts says more about me being a jerk than anything else, but after every night for years on end, it was a little aggravating when you were a ticked off teenager trying to be cool for your girlfriend, when your sister would come and say that. looking back, i would have been way cooler to my lady friends if i would have said the same thing back, but hindsight is 20/20, and besides, i didn't really have any lady friends when she did this. i'm mostly lying to make myself look good. i suppose it doesn't work when you admit it. anyway, that was the sweet little girl that she was. i don't know where it went wrong. just kidding joy. she is still the sweet little girl, and it's hard for me to accept the fact that she's 18 and grown up, and is not really my little sister anymore. she lives in winnipeg and has a full time job and is taking care of herself, so that title doesn't really fit.

she has taken a lot of heat from our family over the years about certain things. one, her music. we bugged her incessantly about her rap music, but i can't really do that anymore, since i like justin timberlake...really, what would that say about me if i criticized her? JT 4 Life. besides, some of what i listened to was worse, so there is no room for criticism on my part. also, every boyfriend she's ever had, we have drilled into the ground. by we, i mean her brothers and father. mom and kerilyn always managed to be nice. and, my dad was nice too, but you could see the heat bubbling up underneath, just waiting to snap a neck. just kidding, dad. one of the things that i most admire about her is that she won't just accept being a christian because other people say so, or because she wants to fit in with our family. she is who she is, and she won't just do something to make others happy if she is not sure of it. i wish this was a quality i had in more ready supply. she is her own person in this respect, and for that, i hold her in high esteem. i used to worry about her, because she is so much like me, and it took me a long time to stop doing stupid things. but she is not like me in this way. she has her head on more straight than i ever did. while i will always worry about her in the way a brother cares for his sister, i no longer worry about her choices and decisions, because she is a smart woman, and i know she is so much further along than i've ever given her credit for. she has taught me that you can be yourself and not worry what other people think, and have a brain for yourself, while still having fun. i have no doubt that she will, and already is, become an amazing woman that does incredible things with her life. she is such a loving and kind person, and for that reason, i have no doubt that she will be okay. sorry for always hassling you before, joy. i did it beacuse i loved you, but now i realize how special you are and how off base i was.

anyway, some of this might not make sense to anyone but me and my family, but i just wanted everyone to know how incredible she is. she has such a beautiful spirit and makes me so proud to be her brother. i know she will do incredible things with her life. love you joylyn.


stay tuned for posts on the documentaries "Jesus Camp" and "Scared Sacred". Both very interesting...