Thursdays Thought~The Tears of a Clown"

"You grow up the day you have your first real laugh at yourself"~Ethyl Barrymore

I love this quote, although the first time I saw it it rather puzzled me since I believed that I had always been able to laugh at myself. True I had always had a sense of humor; had always used jokes as a way of making friends, lightening the mood or coping with difficult situations. I may have laughed at myself publicly in that self deprecating way that we hope will excuse all of our social fumbles , the old "I meant to do that" as you fall off our bike. It wasn't until I had really learned a thing or two about life and human behavior that I admitted to myself that while I was laughing on the outside I was horribly insecure and unhappy on the inside. Like that song by Smokey Robinson, "Tears of a Clown", I wasn't really laughing at myself, I was just trying to beat others to it.
To be able to truly laugh at yourself you have to be able to step outside of the little box of worry and self importance we all build around ourselves and take a look from the outside. You have to realize that although you forgive your friends  for doing stupid things, you hold yourself to a much higher standard. Finally you have to muster up the humility to say "Why am I the only one that's supposed to be perfect? What's so special about me?" Only then can you begin to chip away at the Ego to reveal the absurdity of the expectations of perfection and "coolness" we hold for ourselves . Then, when we finally realize that there are indeed times we look like a complete fool and that's ok but everyone gets their turn as the Fool; then we have truly "grown up"



© 2011 Nanakoosa’s Place, authored by Jennifer Hazard

Laughing with the Jester

I was, uncharacteristically, nearly speechless for a moment when I first saw this. Then my reaction was to want to laugh, cry and get up and dance. Some people are offended by this video. They feel it is demeaning to those who lost their lives in Auschwitz and other prison camps. It is an extremely painful history to carry and I can respect their feelings however, they have the option of not watching it. For the rest of us, Survivors of all sorts, I think the role of the Jester or the Trickster is desperately needed. We have become either too politically correct on one hand, and too angry and righteous on the other hand; we tiptoe around our feelings of horror and rage and fear. It's almost like we are protecting them. It's almost as if we are afraid that if we allow ourselves to laugh, our experiences and pain will be invalidated. It is my personal feeling that our experiences are what they are, no one knows why some people were chosen to have more difficult lives than others. What we can chose is how to recover and heal. Today I am choosing to laugh and dance in honor of the strength of survival.