Sunday, April 17, 2011

Part IX: Laughter

We are questers whose goals are uncertain, refusing to extend beyond that by which we limit ourselves. Without knowing the ultimate goal, we find ourselves tormented by our refusal to avenge our desires. Like a sly, subtle presence in our own lives, we ignore the superb conversations between our heart’s desire and our mind’s unyielding dominion over that which we allow ourselves to experience. Rather than remain a spectator in our own minds, we must delve deeper to achieve perspectivism, which is in direct contrast to viewing the external world. Internal perspective requires introspection and receptivity of what we find. Instead, we spend time being rivals, an ironic unfriending of ourselves at best. 

Unlike Hamlet who chose self’s freedom, I believe we can exist in harmony, loyal to those for whom we toil, while enjoying that which in ourselves we need. If I ask myself that which in myself I enjoy the most, the answer is laughter. Perhaps it is this deep enjoyment that I feel harmony exists between my desires and those which some consider limiting, namely, our bond to others for there is very little comedy in solidarity pursuits. 

Comedy thrives in the collective appreciation of our own humanity. We laugh at the limitations we cannot escape; from the accidental slip on a banana peel to the more subtle ironies we recognize in our own complexities, to the profound magnitude of the unknown. Not out of cruelty do we laugh, not from emotion, but from a Birdseye vantage point. 

Laughter releases us from the bondage of helplessness. We cannot, as of yet, without the advent of some biotechnological mechanism, extend our consciousness beyond that of the biological mechanism. Therefore, we must face our mortality. Death is hilarious, only because we cannot escape it. In a world of changing, evolving forms, we laugh the hardest at that which we cannot change by our own enterprise. 

I solemnly and with a heavy heart, have no choice but to accept my own death. Irrespective of the dreams I have or do not have, seek or do not seek, death hovers anxiously in the background. Any dream, any aspect of it, is temporary at best. So, I shall choose to live the dreams and experiences I feel will allow me to laugh, to find enjoyment, and to more easily accept my fate. I will ponder the more subtle meanings of laughter, the philosophy therein, and do the only thing I can to ward off the inevitable - laugh. 

Those reading my promise may laugh at my dreams, but I will dream of our collective laughter. 


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