the furniture is in ruins

writing of heroes, ralph waldo emerson said, "But that which takes my fancy most, in the heroic class, is the good-humor and hilarity they exhibit. It is a height to which common duty can very well attain, to suffer and to dare with solemnity. But these rare souls set opinion, success, and life, at so cheap a rate, that they will not soothe their enemies by petitions, or the show of sorrow, but wear their own habitual greatness. Scipio, charged with peculation, refuses to do himself so great a disgrace as to wait for justification, though he had the scroll of his accounts in his hands, but tears it to pieces before the tribunes. Socrates's condemnation of himself to be maintained in all honor in the Prytaneum, during his life, and Sir Thomas More's playfulness at the scaffold, are of the same strain. In Beaumont and Fletcher's "Sea Voyage," Juletta tells the stout captain and his company, —

_Jul_. Why, slaves, 't is in our power to hang ye.
_Master_. Very likely, 

'T is in our powers, then, to be hanged, and scorn ye."

These replies are sound and whole. Sport is the bloom and glow of a perfect health. The great will not condescend to take any thing seriously; all must be as gay as the song of a canary, though it were the building of cities, or the eradication of old and foolish churches and nations, which have cumbered the earth long thousands of years. Simple hearts put all the history and customs of this world behind them, and play their own game in innocent defiance of the Blue-Laws of the world; and such would appear, could we see the  human race assembled in vision, like little children frolicking together; though, to the eyes of mankind at large, they wear a stately  and solemn garb of works and influences."

humor is the most important quality that one can nurture, for it is the mother of the best virtues love and patience, and it can replace other virtues like hope and faith with higher orders of power.

hope is elusive.  it is expecting something that never is, because nothing can be what we hope.  humor, then, replaces an attitude of expectation with an attitude of jovial waiting for nothing, and being happy when something comes, whatever it is.  humor causes you to have a new sense of lightheartedness about the world, so that when something comes that you aren't hoping for or when something you are hoping for is different than you hoped (inevitable), you can smile and say a little quip and enjoy what's in front of you with a good demeanor. when you hope for something, you start to "know" what is coming, which is just impossible.  everything is relational, and even if you experienced something in the past, like going to the dentist and being in pain, you might "hope" or "expect" the same thing the next time you go, but you will be going in different circumstances.  the last time you went, maybe you had a cavity or sore, but you don't this time.  your expectations in every case are somehow going to be different than the reality or experience you will have.  with humor, you can detach yourself from expectations.  you can detach yourself from want.  in fact, you can detach yourself from everything, creating for yourself a new hovel or platform from which everything can be made to look hilarious.  this may cause people to call into question your sanity, but it is possible.  when people laugh at weird things, it makes you step back and wonder, right?  so there may be societal boundaries to work with...  but good humor will ask of you to understand that the world is full of resources that can be prodded to produce results of mirth and hilarity.  why would you want to live any other way?  humor raises you above levels of "seriousness" that weigh you down.  and why be serious and intent about something?  you are going to be wrong anyway; there is just so much in the world.

emo phillips, a notable comedian once said that humor can be found just "by turning something upside-down.  like a small child."

humor cultivates patience.  patience seems to be an offspring of smiling and shunted expectations; patience is watching a child kick at the pricks of freedom and merely smiling, not getting upset.  i watch children everyday who get upset at me for the way things are, and when i smile in good humors, they can know i mean no malice, and they know i know that they just don't understand the way the world works, yet.  kindly smiling and being light about such things is a Great opposite to freaking out about a child making a mistake.  humor makes mistakes lighter all around by giving you an air of patience.

there is a boy who is annoyed by his family, everyday.  the boy fumes and seethes watching his mother go around saying opinions that he wants to expose the malice of, but he can't.  this boy cannot love his mother right now.  now, add humor to this situation, and this newly detached boy is aloof from his mother's opinions and not weighed down by their senselessness.  instead, the boy makes a joke and changes the subject, or makes a joke and makes the subject come into a new perspective- one in which both parties know that something is only as serious or as sacred as you make it.  happily, now, the boy loves his mother again.  he can be around her, and she can be around him, because they are wrapped in a spirit of good-happiness together.  anger becomes displaced by humor, and fighting, shouting, hating are all but gone.

this being said, i am not in the position to say that such things should be totally eradicated.  i actually do think those powerful emotions have their places; however, i am in a position to say that i think those things are nicely balanced with a good dose of humor.  humor will bring a sense of binding and life to a newly wounded heart.  ah, the treacherous path of balance...

i once was in an upheaval about questions that can't be answered, and they felt like a giant, seething blob, undergirded with fine, flexible steel trappings slopping around in my head, crashing from wall to wall.  it also felt like the blob was charged with electricity.  in the midst of my pain, i stepped back- i stepped back and i saw it for what i really wanted to see it- and there was a little fish flopping around, harmless.  i laughed at my self, and i laughed at the fish.

humor is most poetic.  humor is most noble.  humor is most divine.  humor is the platform on which ideas are pushed ahead.  humor is the ability to rise above sludgy swamps of sentimentality and heavy atmospheres into new heights.  humor is beating prejudice.  humor is loosening the tongue.  humor is a life's pursuit.  humor is sincerity packaged in edible morsels.  humor is camaraderie.  humor is solidarity.  humor is the twist of your lips.  humor is stubbing your toe and laughing, because pain is funny.  humor is bending circumstances.  humor is honor.  humor is the highest truth.

"The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?"

-henry david thoreau