Man Is The Animal That Laughs

Although not true on a person by person basis, it is estimated that the average baby laughs about 300 times per day.  The average adult laughs about 20 times per day.

I think this is sad.

And indicative.

As we grow, we grow into a code.  A rule of ethics and values that for the most part is constant, with limited variables depending mostly on geography.

Religion.  Government.  Politics. Custom. Ceremony.  Tradition.

None of these things are natural.  We are given these things at birth, and wear them like our first pair of shoes.  Some of them, much like shoes, we grow out of.  Most of them, we do not.  We may alter them.  We may decorate or design them.  Draw on them with the little crayons of colorful inspiration that we from time to time pick up, and make these things more our own.

A prude is a person who thinks that his own rules of propriety are natural laws. - Robert A. Heinlein.

So we adopt these rules of propriety.  We cling to them.  At some point we all must realize that we are here without an instruction manual, and that, I guess, is very scary for some.  Some will cling to any book of mythology and call it an instruction manual.  It isn't.  It simply is someone else's words with a part or whole of what you have already adopted, and gives credence to what you believe, or want to believe.  Since it is written, it must be true.

Nothing is true.

Explore that idea someday if you want.  Its a big idea.  Kinda frightening.  One you may disagree with...however...tell me a truth.  Not a fact.  Facts and truth are NOT the same thing.

Tell me a truth.  I'll show you its subjectivity.

Everything is true.

How can this be?  I don't know...I didn't do it.

We are all so full of anger, and so much of it is aimed at people who do not accept our own truths as theirs.  Gods, governments, or television programming.  Its all the same, and so much reason to pass our own brand of judgement.

So much reason to hate.

And it was all created by someone else, so you could get wrapped up in it.  Follow it.  Dedicate yourself to it. Build your own tower to look down on all those who disagree with it.

And me?  I think they were all created to keep us from laughing.

Bear with me.

Who is more free than the man or woman who laughs?

Who is more dangerous to "the system" than a free man or woman?

I don't mean that kind of laughter that comes from hearing a naughty little joke.

I mean the kind of laughter that so many people are missing.  That laughter that starts at the bottom, and works its way out, because it must come out.  That kind of laughter that is in fact celebration of being alive.  The kind of laughter that is not much more than an extension of your life's breath.

Despite religious, or political, or sexual, or racial differences, it is nearly impossible to hate someone you have laughed with.

We focus oh so much on the differences, and forget that we are all so much the same.

Personally I do not live for anger.  I do not live for hate.  I relish my pain, and trials, and difficulties, because I know someday they may make a fantastic joke.  I intend to die with a smile.

More importantly, I intend to live with a smile.

I honestly hope that at the end of my little trip on this floating rock, people who remember me, do it with a smile.  I know that all won't.  I can't possibly be a 100% success...

...but goddammit...that's not gonna stop me from trying.