Keep Calm, Carry On

Good News: Ililipat na raw sa Pilipinas ang Camp Big Falcon! =)

Bad News: Hindi raw kasama sila Voltes V... =(
---<--@

Minsan talaga kapatid ko, kailangang daanin na lang muna natin sa tawa...

Thank you for the Laughter

This is how I want to remember Robin Williams - as Mork from Mork and Mindy and also as the voice of the Genie from Disney's Aladdin. Boy, that Genie could talk.

I remember the 80's as a decade when TV helped bring families and friends together.

We watched our favorites TV shows with family at home. Then we talk about them at school with friends.

I'm an 80's kid. So I want to remember a great artist, who gave me a few of my laugh lines, a master of his craft... and not the crappy politics some people seem to be spouting in the wake of his loss.

Too much tragedy in our times, I think... large, looming, scary.

We need more comedy.

I have learned something true about great comedians. Their comedy is usually more or less proportional to the tragedy in their lives. Their comedy is good to great because have learned to deal with tragedy as a reality in their lives. They live or have learned to live with a sense of tragedy.

They are authentic people. Authentic people tend to produce real comedy.

People cry when they hurt to help them deal better, I understand. It helps us breathe better. I do it too.

But those who can afford to allow themselves some laughter, momentarily can forget the pain. The essence of comedy is contained in these small moments, I think.

When laughter is the matter, everything large about life seems to momentarily flee the scene...

For some people, it means a lot to be able to laugh. It's mostly free and when taken properly, is as good as any pricey mental health medicine.

People like me.

I value comedy. I can deal with the drama but not the saga.

Speaking of laughter though, as a willing recipient of other people's good humor is different from being the one dealing it out on stage or screen. It is a lot harder I think when you're the one telling the jokes, especially if you're one of the best.

And more so I guess, when you're in pain.

So thank you, Mr. Williams - via con Dios. Salamat po. Sorry I used to mistake you for John Ritter from Three's Company for some reason...

And to all great comedians, love and admiration.

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Life here on this world is a tragedy. But contained in this life, are moments of relief. Small moments.

We find solace in these small moments. Laughter itself conceals its own small moments. And hidden in these small moments, after the wind, the shaking, and the fire, a silence...

Awesome vs. Not Awesome

Estee Ackerman is awesome.

This dude ain't.

20110401

April 1

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.