Humour
Each moment that passes changes you.
You do not, cannot possess even yourself.
How can you hope to possess anyone or anything else?
(The Silent Flute)
What is humour?
Humour
is the ability to realise that not everything in life can or should be taken
seriously.
This particularly applies to yourself.
There is immeasurable value in being able to laugh at your own folly.
Shatner...
William Shatner released an album in the 1960's called The Transformed
Man in which he destroyed some well-known songs such as Lucy in the
Sky with Diamonds and Mr Tambourine Man.
To this day nobody can figure out whether Shatner was
singing in earnest or joking.
He even posed on the album sleeve dressed in his Star Trek tunic.
If you watched the 1960's Star Trek show or listened to the album,
you may find it
difficult to believe that William Shatner took anything too seriously, especially himself.
As Captain Kirk, he balanced charm, swagger, humour and heroism.
His show has enjoyed an earnest fan following for decades. The digitally
restored series is still great fun to watch, even today.
William Shatner has a website in which he
raises money for charity and uses his name to good use.
His character extends far beyond the screen.
Shatner's second album Has Been combined humour with compassion:
Common People is an indictment of poverty
in society and rich people who pretend to be poor.
He openly laughs at the absurdity of such behaviour.
His Boston Legal character 'Denny Crane' combines humour, character
and pathos.
Absurdity
So much in life is an
invention.
The invention becomes so widely accepted that it becomes the convention and
nobody thinks to question it.
Consider money...
What if somebody gave you a post-it note and said, "This is money, you can buy
things with it."
You'd laugh at the
absurdity of the idea.
Yet we would readily accept a
state-endorsed piece of paper and regard it as
legal tender.
We accept the idea that a piece of paper has value because somebody else
says it does.
It is not the piece of paper that matters - it is the idea.
How much of what you take for granted is really just a convention; an idea
made into a cultural habit?
How many things in life that we take seriously are really quite absurd?
Maybe everything?
How many times are we upset because somebody challenges our beliefs, our opinions or our lifestyle?
Page created 25 June 2001