The Humor Monger

The Price of humor

It comes to pass … in the experience of those considered the stalwarts of education and learning … that in the midst of their accolades and grand posturing … that they don't know all. And it occurs because someone … engaged humor … to disarm something about them … that relaxed its customary grasp of their self control … to break into laughter. It is indeed a deep realization of the place of humor in our lives.

 

Our passions rely on humor … and its relation to friendship … to communicate itself. It comes from a place … on the other side of human passions … and by that I mean … that its not sourced in the human experience … but is a component of the qualities of creation. The humor it displays is regarding the human qualities of posturing … making things up … using assumptions … and the presumptuous nature of relating to others … in good faith and decorum.

 

Its certainly not a fair attitude to bring to bear on humans … and if we are perceived to … making things up on occasion … its because we are still on the threshold of learning about life … and have not mastered it completely. But it doing what we do … we cultivate a culture of relations … that recognizes that we are not perfect … and are want to … add-lip a fib or two … in the way we manage ourselves. It defines the norm … and brings a certain common relation to others … like we are all in this together.

 

But it puts us on the opposite side of the humor monger … especially when we apply ourselves to social responsibilities … take a position at work … or are responsible for women and children in our care. The humor monger himself is not in any way … engaged in any responsibility in society. He represents the ideal … the possibilities … the grand scheme of things … and has a tendency to think that if our attitudes are going to hurt us in some way … they ought to steer us in another direction.

 

The Biblical accounts of heaven and hell … may have first introduced to us … the notion of the humor monger as the devil. And in the company of many a severe devotee of God … we find that there is no space for humor … or happiness in life. Such is the exacting demand of devotion and faith in God sometimes … that it strangles us of the ability to enjoy … whatever we can of life. And in contact with that part of our passions … it raises an immediate frown of disapproval from a part of the mind … as if affirming that the twain will never get along.

 

But ask any man who has spent some time pondering on the issues of creation … and the condition of man … and he'll tell you how … its impossible to say that it began at a certain place … or ended somewhere … or that it was always orderly. Its almost magical … mysterious … unbelievable in the scope of its vast natures … and that is why it sometimes laughs. Its just as mystified with itself … for the infinite nature of its being.

 

Speak to a man who may have been subject to a ludicrous position … or a man cuckolded in his relations with women … and we are bound to find a deep traumatic attitude of isolation and withdrawal … that's symptomatic of the human psyche … as it relates to life. And we find in that neighborhood … all manner of devices … instruments … styles … defenses … perceptions … and a general manner of engaging ourselves on issues … without exposing the weak underbelly.

 

Einstein was reported to have said that … from all that he had come to understand the universe … he found it surprising that life still continues in an orderly manner. That comment should solicit laughter … and in doing so … the individual realizes … the basis for all laughter in man. But how does one go about installing a basis of knowledge and understanding … in such a vast landscape of creation? The early Greeks … said it best when they advised … ' know yourself.'

 

And by that … I figure it starts with an honesty with ourselves … and from there … we advance towards understanding what a man is and what he is not … simply by the conditions we witness in our daily lives. The Vasudeva … in the Gita says … ' What goes against the will of man … goes against the will of nature.' It implies a relationship man enjoys with the forces of creation … that is bound in an intimation of issues about ourselves … inherent in the nature of creation itself.

 

The Indics taught the view that … the human body is the universe … and the suggestion that every cell is a constellation out there … functioning in the same way we do … here on earth. No doubt that had a great impact on the early Indics … but the grandiose sense of posturing it generated … has added more to our defenses on the issues.  Certainly someday it will dawn on the average Indic … as a good joke … someone played on him … and the poor b*****d will have to rework his entire scheme of posturing as a man … which is the defining culture in India.

 

The lessons that are designed to help any individual understand his volition in life … is often caught up with a play itself. A play to disarm the original play of nature … and then to hit the books with a sensible view of Darwinism. As Zen Buddhism says … ' any upaya ( skill ) engaged to still the mind … is like taking out a thorn with another thorn.' And that means to befriend the humor monger … and to understand his ways.

 

There are those among us who may have done that before. Its my impression that the Christian ethic was designed as a bulwark against … the humor monger … by the volition of a man of faith … who brings his will to bear on issues … that are without beginning or end. But it was done to serve man in the cause of humanity. And where these fine men … may have found in the times we live in … that its impossible to maintain the faith any longer … it brings the masses into direct contact with the humor monger … with the usual results.

 

So nature creates the opportunity … for those retired from an active life … and who may be facing the inevitability of passing on to another life … to share in the common responsibilities of humanity.  And that explains why … in getting older … the burdens of responding to the humor monger … or whatever we call him … is placed on all men. Whatever we add on as understanding to our condition … returns as a benefit in another life … to continue the work of ' knowing yourself.' It is the ambition of the father of the universe.