Humor

"... among these..."

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  These are the three unalienable Rights called out in our Declaration of Independence.  But they are not the only unalienable Rights.  The text clearly states "among these," meaning the Rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are a selection, a subset of all the unalienable Rights of mankind.  In addition to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, I find there to be three other Rights that are unalienable, Rights that are, again, universal to humanity itself, endowed upon us all by our Creator:  Love, Honor, and Humor.

Let us talk of humor.  Warning- I'm not good at this.  Then again, neither is Bill O'Reilly.  Maybe if he had Trump's magic mane?

Humor, laughter, that physical representation of pure emotion born from the heart.  As with love and honor, humor is an unalienable Right that resides in all of us.  Laughter, the smiles it brings, the tears it can cause, the reverberating sound that tells the world "I am alive with unrestrained feeling!"  Everyone loves to laugh, everyone appreciates comedy and lightheartedness.  How could you not?  With all the negativity in the world, laughter helps us cope with some of the crazy things that people say and do.

The problem is that humor exists in the political danger zone of "subjectivity."  It varies from person to person.  What I find funny- slapstick, fart jokes, sexual innuendo, animals being silly, randomness, and Betty White- may not be funny to anyone else listening to my message.  Nothing I can say or do will make others think that stuff is funny either, regardless of how many upvotes it might have on Reddit.  And this is 1000% ok, because humor is our armor, used to enhance the good aspects of our lives while simultaneously softening the worst blows the world may throw at us.

Someone once wrote "humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility."  Laughter brings us peace, relieves tension, makes us feel more at ease.  Humanity is brilliant in our physiological makeup this way; to laugh is to be true to ourselves and others.  A real, deep belly laugh conveys more sincerity than most any other gesture mankind can manifest.  It reveals our soulful joy instantaneously and unapologetically.  No matter what each of us considers humorous, know that its subjectivity is as true and natural as any other difference amongst human beings.  As such, we must not suppress humor.  To suppress humor, to wish it bottled up because of its potential to offend another human being is to kill the soul.  It requests that we dispose of an essential aspect of our humanity simply because another individual may not understand, think, or feel the same way we do.

I do not buy into the idea of restricting humor, not one bit.  Instead, I want to nurture this Right, foster humor in everyone- even Mets fans, those poor souls.  Laugh with each other, laugh at each other, laugh at a cute little baby, laugh at a dancing old man, laugh at a dog, a cat, a three-toed sloth. Heck, laugh at me!  Laugh and be merry, for laughter and merriment flow like a river along the path to happiness.  Know this Right of yours, know it and embrace it the same as you embrace life, just like you embrace love.  Grab hold of it tightly and don't let go.

But don't squeeze too hard.  You might hurt yourself.

 

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