Today the children came to school, what joy! I love their easy laughter! Somewhere I read “the joy returned!” and that is how I felt today.
Madeleine L’Engle writes … “One of the greatest weapons of all is laughter, a gift for fun, a sense of play which is sadly missing from the grownup world.” We can take life too seriously … and miss the joy that God wants us to experience.
In that same writing, L’Engle says, “Paradox again: to take ourselves seriously enough to take ourselves lightly. If every hair of my head is counted, then in the very scheme of the cosmos I matter; I am created by a power who cares about the sparrow, and the rabbit in the snare, and the people on the crowded streets; who calls the stars by name. And you. And me.”
One poet pokes fun … laughing at ourselves …
I Laugh at Life: its antics make for me a giddy games,
Where only foolish fellows take themselves with solemn aim.
I laugh at pomp and vanity, at riches, rank and pride;
At social inanity, at swager, swank and side.
At poets, pastry-cooks and kings, at folk sublime and small,
Who fuss about a thousand things that matter not at all;
At those who dream of name and fame, at those who scheme for pelf. . . .
But best of all the laughing game—is laughing at myself.
~ Robert Service
