Sources of Today’s Humor

As this day unfolds, I know where its humor will have its sources. Laugh­ter will arise from within any sub­ject in which I take myself too seri­ously. My ego will set me up for embar­rass­ing sit­u­a­tions. It will strut with an arro­gant stride only to fall all over itself like a cir­cus clown. My higher self will smile appre­cia­tively and then pick me back up to try again.

The really funny stuff comes from all of the insti­tu­tions that we think will save us or even help us. Watch any news chan­nel and you will roar with laugh­ter. “Self-appointed sav­iors” sel­dom rec­og­nize them­selves for the vil­lains they really are (back to the begin­ning of time). They too have egos set­ting them up for dis­as­ter (but tak­ing every­one else with them). I learned long ago that the most self-serious per­son out there is actu­ally just the top clown.

The vil­lage idiot usu­ally gets the last laugh. Out­casts get a chance to smile at the herd — each of us seek­ing to be in a cen­ter that is not really there — and never has been. Until we learn to ques­tion our own seri­ous nature, we are bound to repeat the sopho­moric cycles of being wise fools. Our ratio­nal­iza­tions make for comedic episodes. We can jus­tify any­thing that strokes our egos (think back about some of the cars you have pur­chased). I once bought a Vega think­ing it made me look chic. It only made me look cheap.

Before today is over, I am going to be more clown than sage. I just hope I can tell the dif­fer­ence. Then again, it is the Court Jester that has the right to whis­per into the ear of the King on any and all occa­sions. Maybe that is what I am doing when I pray.