JoyBots: A Short Story
JoyBots
A Tale of Two Families
There were two families, the Wise Family, and the Proud Family, who had bought the nifty new invention called the JoyBot. The JoyBot was a robot that would cook, clean, and provide entertainment for their family owners. The Wise Family enjoyed doing karaoke from the speaker on the JoyBot’s chest. The Proud Family would watch movies from the projectors on the JoyBot’s eyes. But like all good things, the battery only lasted about five years until the JoyBot would be unable to recharge and out of commission forever.
The Wise family enjoyed their family robot for many years. They took it camping, on trips abroad, at family gatherings, and so on. When the battery was low, they would put it to sleep so it could recharge, and the family was still able to enjoy themselves without the JoyBot. An app was released that would countdown the days until the battery would die. At first, the Wise family would always check on the countdown and dread the day of the JoyBot’s demise. After days of anxiety and fear, the Wise Family decided as a tribe to delete the app and enjoy whatever time they get to enjoy with their JoyBot. Fortunately, the JoyBot lived beyond its five-year battery life until it eventually crashed at year seven. The Wise family embraced the memories they enjoyed with their JoyBot and would talk about it for years to come.
The Proud Family, enjoyed their JoyBot like the Wise family did until they downloaded the doomsday clock for their robot. As soon as the Proud family was aware of the time and date of their JoyBot’s demise, they stopped using it in the hope that they could prolong its life. They would use it sparingly but felt so guilty about wasting its battery that they kept it on sleep mode. The family had grown so dependent on JoyBot that when they stopped using it, they were all unhappy. Eventually, the Proud Family fell apart. The parents divorced after years of an unhappy marriage, one child went off to college, the other quit school altogether, and they didn’t talk anymore. Finally, the Proud Father found the JoyBot in the basement, and he was excited to discover it was still within the five-year window of battery life. He touched the power button but it would not turn on. After years of being asleep, the battery died prematurely from insufficient charge. Out of fear of losing their JoyBot, they lost each other and unintentionally killed it before its time.
Don’t let the fear of loss (yours or others) keep you from embracing joy with people you love. We don’t know how much time we have, but we know loss is inevitable. Create memories, love viciously, and make the most of time while we still have it. Then our memories can live beyond the finite limits of our mortal lives.
