I am not one to say that April 1 is a day for fools. I think it would be a reckless thing to say so. I understand this day to be a day of humor - it is a time to smile.
I once had to answer a question, "what makes you laugh"?
Practical jokes!
What makes me laugh is the unconscious realization that I (and my friends) instantly have when something really unpredictably and harmlessly silly has just happened to someone who does not expect it.
In retrospect, I guess that's just one of the many facets of humor. Because there are many kinds of humor. Some of them are not to my liking. Some are downright crass and repulsive.
There is a limit to what is funny.
They say laughter is the best medicine. But laughter may only be considered medicinal if it does no one any harm. If the humanity of either the source of the humor or its intended recipients is left distorted or embittered, that is not humor.
I think humor is a form of communication. It is either written, spoken or expressed wholly in bodily gestures. But it goes deeper than that. What it conveys is essentially a return to innocence - the original essence of play. We are all creatures of play. Deep within ourselves, we all have a profound desire to return to a child-like state. It is an innocence we can never really outgrow; a certain sense of agelessness we receive from Beauty.
When God smiles and we are able to smile (or even laugh) with God (and with each other), that to me is humor. Therefore, humor is an art. It adds to the color and the wonder of living.
A wholesome sense of humor imparts in us a refreshing lightness that allows us to smile and to laugh from a heart that cares; a heart that is able to smile and to laugh with us - even at us, at me.
Like all of Sacred Life this humor is perennial. It is the spark from which arise all hearts of good cheer. It is like love, patient as well as constant. Its laughter is like a break in the storm; a pause of quiet realization in the silence of our unconscious skies, a moment's respite from the heaviness of this weary earth - echoes of a promised return into the realm of an everlasting happiness.
As an aid to our common human hopes a wholesome sense of humor is meant to help wear down animosities, grind against divisions, melt away discord and renew the perseverance of the human spirit.
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Mabuhay po tayong lahat! God love all nations.
"From somber, solemn, serious saints, deliver us o, Lord."
Saint Teresa of Avila
Smile.
