Riddle Me This...
Where do you look fer answers?
The Bible?
History?
Biographies and Autobiographies?
Yer therapist?
The philosophers?
The clergy?
Teachers and advanced learning classes?
Politicians? (Me sure hopes not)
Actually, Me don't wanna take anything away from ya and yer beliefs, the way you gather the information you need to make intelligent choices about yer lives, but me gots ta asks youse a question: Where be the fun?
We base our politics and communal structures on the Nicomachean line of thought: That is to say that People should be acting in a way that helps them fulfill a purpose or end that begets the best good or the fulfilment of their purpose. (I know there is a lot more to this, but I am not trying to deal with all of Aristotle's thoughts in a single bound.)
Kant told us we have bodies that took up space and experience of the body is required before its presence becomes clear (and a whole lot of other shit that I just can't go into now) and Descartes told us we don't even know iffin we be bodies, but we know - Cogito ergo sum. So we battle against the shit that causes us to bruise and tell ourselves that we be imagining it.
Ya, psycho babble. (Iffin I tell you that you be a banana, how you gonna convince me different?)
Look, Me not here to give you an insight to the ways that other people think. Me didn' t do Thomas Aquinas or Nietzsche or Moses and left a lot of other folks out of the picture (I am not yer teacher, nor yer preacher)
So where the heck is me be going?
Me gonna tell ya.
Laughs, comedy, chuckles.
Never has a "great brain" of history produced a moment of levity (do me a favor and tell me if I am wrong) I don't want to piss you off (yes I do) but Jesus never cracked a joke. Socrates commited suicide. Ghandi were asassinated. Mother theresa looks dour and Me gots to ask one simple thing.
How come they didn't ask or do anything more realistic of us than Frank Gorshin did?
Why do we think that those who use lofty words and phrases are so much further along the road to truth and enlightenment than we are?
Me be pretty sure that you got some kind of answers for what you be seein.
Me not tellin you that the shoulders of those who thought before us are narrow. On the contrary, they be great, but they not the be all and end all to human thought. And iffin we spend our time just regurgitating the thoughts of others;how long will we have to wait fer something new?
Yes Me be drunk and blogging, again. And lookin fer a laugh.
Me no doing sobriety ya.
28 comments:
Meebe me be a little wacko today, huh
me looks to google for the answers
if it ain't there, only one place I KNOW will have the right answer
me heart.
xx
pinks
But I thought YOU had the answers. That's why I keep coming over here. In high school I had the answers...I had the teachers version of the text book and they were right in the back! It's been all downhill and confusion since.
ohhh I like Pinks answer... wish I got here first to say it! lol
Heres the thing about people just regurgitating the thoughts of others... I think they believe in the power of positive thinking... if you say it long enough it might actually come true... or be true.
I think there are some people who just need to believe in something. Others who dont. Find what works for ya and go for it. I am still searching.
As I get older, I wonder if there is really an answer...
Actually, Jesus did crack one sort of joke. When His disciples got impressed at the crowds they were drawing, Jesus said, "Well, shyeah. Where the carcass is, the vultures gather." Or at least that's my paraphrase.
I think the book of Proverbs is hysterical. My favorite one says something like "better a crust of bread on a roof than feasting in a house with a quarrelsome woman." I can just picture this huge woman in a muu-muu and curlers yelling "Harcourt Fenton Mudd! I slaved over this meal and do you appreciate it? NO!" And there's this poor little wretch sitting on his roof with a granola bar, enjoying the silence.
I adored Frank Gorshin. He had a great Richard Burton imitation.
I, too, look to the Google gods for my answers. I'm sure Kant, Nietzsche, Plato, Descartes, etc., knew a lot but who wants to ask a bunch of guys with no sense of humor? Everything else I need to know, I get from the Sweet Potato Queens Big-Ass Book of Love ... or some such.)
"Me think; therefore me am."
- Mighty Dyckerson (1972 -)
Pink~ As long as it keeps you smiling then it be giving you the right stuff, sweets.
VE~ Damn. If you call being on vacation all summer and travelling the world downhill, then man; Me wants to know what yer life were like in high school.
KittyKate~ Ya gots to believe in something and in someone. It helps to keep the energy channeled. Me were just thinking that society as a whole been looking towards and relying on folks who just might not have known what they were talking about..
Robyn~ It be a shame yer not posting anymore. Anyone you can spot, understand and reply to me inanity be truly talented. Harcourt Fenton Mudd! LMAO.
Christ had a ghost writer, mind you. It must've been St.Paul doing all the reporting. Probably added humour into stuff when the bloody Corinthians didn't answer he letters.
SJ~ Me just looked that book up in Amazon and they said it were sold out. Could you lend me yer copy?
Dyck!!~ Ya think?
I use a number of things... I'm a bit flaky so I have a tendency toward runes and tarot, dream interpretations, gut feelings etc. but my only true inspiration and answer machine is kinda like a big game of chance - I just jump in feet first and hope I'm right.
I really dig quantum theology though - the idea that every decision you do make causes the opposite choices to branch off and make their own timelines in other dimensions - it blows me away :) even if I screw something up here - I comfort myself in knowing that I got it right somewhere...
Actually Jesus had quite THE sense of humor. Here iare just a few examples from one of the many books of the Bible that were "conveniently discarded":
***
Knock knock
Who's there?
Jesus
Jesus who?
Jesus Christ! Open the damned door already, would you?!
***
In another book, there's a depiction of Jesus walking on water back up to the start of the lake, carrying a pair of skis.
***
Always the prankster, Jesus was renowned for turning the oxcart driver's water into wine just as he was being pulled over by the Centurions.
Of course I'll lend it to you, Scary. It's very educational.:)
Scary,
I'm a banana. But how did you know?
-TGF
I understand your posts less and less, Monster. I read every single one, but I'm totally lost around here these days. I've been afraid to admit it, but there it is.
Oh, and I hate The Three Stooges with a passion that burns. They aren't funny at all. The Marx Brothers now: absolutely. And don't tell me I don't do slapstick, because I was practically suckled on Monty Python, and I found their slapstick hilarious.
there's a fine and wobbly line between using humor to enlighten and yet not trivialize. 'tis better/easier to err on the side of caution and preserve the importance of ideas by leaving humor out of it.
it's a bit like performing a castigation or gutting a fish. the shape of the blade is supposed to point out the fragility and structure of the flesh without leaving distracting marks that leave you wondering more about the blade than the carcass
TGF~ In some ways we all be bananas. We start out green. gather together in bunches and there never be a straight one in creation.
Camille~ I myself don't always understand what's goin on here, Camille. I have been tryin to work out some stuff in my noggin and I just keep hitting a wall. I don't always know how to get to the heart of an idea and turn it into something simple and understandable. I am wrestling with stuff that is just way too difficult for me to comprehend much less make it understandable. I really appreciate your forthright comment and your patience with the rambling of the last week or so. This place used to be more fun, but the sounding board of Me No Blog has been off key and out of tune. Will try to make some sense in the future.
Me knows plenty of folks who agree with you about the Stooges, but Me not too sure that Monty Python should be considered "slapstick" Me would find it hard to put those guys into any particular category.
Kermit~ This be an unexpected and very happy making surprise. Once again Me be confronted with yer insightful and keen intellect. Me be thinking that the use of humor, if properly applied wouldn't trivialize the importance of any issue at hand. Me just wishes that me were a talented chef displaying the beauty of the food instead of a mental case with a potato peeler.
STOMP.
Just keep the faith Scary. You're a fighter you're just a little punch drunk right now.
I usually ask friends. The ones I know won't sugar coat things. A lot of people are really smart about what to do, as long as it's not for themselves.
for future reference, if it says "potato peeler" on the box, you probably shouldn't cut anything other than potato and potato-like things with it.
the exception to that is a salad spinner. i am pretty sure you're allowed to spin a wet cat in that. the cast may not appreciate it, though.
humor can distract and trivialize, if you don't know your audience or how to go about it. that's why i said it's easier, since it's a pretty hard trick to pull off.
just as an example, a friend of mine went to a college halloween party, where he saw a girl dressed in black-face. mind you, this was at a non-US, mostly white & asian and rich kid college that had been taking some flak for not being culturally diverse enough.
lordy, did she ever catch shit for wearing that outfit. she claimed for days on end she didn't know the history of black face and that she was dressed up as a beauty contestant along her friends, who were all white and not dressed in black face.
now you tell me, was showing up at such a shindig to make that kind of statement effective or not? (as far as i know, the people who voiced their disdain did so more to appear politically correct than to seriously be concerned at the absence of black students at the school)
Grrl~Thanks fer the kindness Jeannie. Me be thinkin that "drunk" were the poifect choice of words though, Me were surprised Me didn't get a BUI from the blogger cops.
Ryan~ Kinda like watchin a chess match. Ya can see all the moves and mistakes that people are makin, but when yer in the game yerself the board is a holy terror of pitfalls and oppotrunity.
Kermit~
1. Poatao peelers don't come in boxes.
2. Ya wrote "better/easier" choosing a course of action based upon the ease with which it is to be carried out or because you have decided that it be the correct thing to do often creates conflict.
3. To answer yer question.
Although some might have found her choice of costume to be in poor taste (the reasons be of no consequence) and her claim to ignorance of the black face ridiculous, Me be wondering if she were trying to make a point at all.
This were a costume party and she were dressing up. How the hell did you read anything other than a awful costume choice into that?
STOMP.
i was under the impression that the question at hand was whether humor sometimes trivializes rather than elevates a serious point one is trying to make.
to me (and apparently most people at the party) showing up as a black person at a party with no naturally black people is a sign that ones is trying to make a statement about the lack of diversity at the school. making her point in a light-hearted way did nothing but ire the others, instead opening up a civilized discussion - something that did happen with a person that dressed up as an abortionist, for instance. i hardly think it unusual that some costume parties are attended by people that choose to make political statements in a light-hearted way. that doesn't mean that there are no costume parties where people chose not to do so.
the reason i mentioned it was because you wrote about the lack of humor in books of some philosophers. what i was trying to say is that humor is just a tool. it doesn't replace the point behind it, and if the objective is to communicate aforementioned point to the widest possible audience, it ought to be used with caution because it can backfire.
case in point: this serious post (and your other serious posts) lost apparently confused/lost you a reader, "camille elexa". to me, this says that comedy isn't always compatible with the serious points you're trying to make. if it were, then the post would have been funny.
lastly, while you are certainly free to criticize me and my blog, i don't see why i need to have a blog where i can communicate my ideas/opinions in order to comment on blogs that do. i choose to produce a blog that intentionally lacks words. i see nothing unusual about this. if there's anything you (or anyone else) wants to discuss what i've said or haven't said here or anywhere else, they're free to e-mail me (inbox.weblog@gmail.com) or leave a comment on my blog.
Ahh drunk blogging. Sounds wonderful,
I knew there was some reason Jesus and I don't get along and now I finally see it here in your blog. HE NEVER CRACKED A JOKE!
I disagree with you that our greatest thinkers had no sense of humor. I believe the opposite to be true.
Here are some quick references I found for some of the people you mentioned:
Louie Crew wrote about Jesus’ sense of humor here (actually, the whole article is pretty funny): http://www.thewitness.org/article.php?id=194. I supply this article as an example of Jesus’ sense of humor because changing water to wine was my first thought.
Socrates was forced to commit suicide. Socrates told fart jokes and puns. Go here for a discussion of Socrates’ sense of humor: http://maroon.uchicago.edu/anesi/socrates.pdf.
Ghandi laughed a great deal, even joking before his assination. See here for an article that speaks specifically to this: http://www.gandhiserve.org/information/questions_and_answers/faq4/faq4.html.
Mother Teresa also had a sense of humor. She is quoted as saying, "The other day I dreamed that I was at the gates of heaven and St. Peter said, ‘Go back to Earth. There are no slums up here.’ "
Kant apparently was a player: http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/artsandhumanities/story/0,,1146406,00.html.
St. Thomas Aquinas said, "virtue consists in knowing how to distance oneself, how to play and to laugh."
Nietzsche is said to have a great sense of humor: "God is dead", said Nietzsche; "Nietzsche is dead", said God, to which Nietsche replies, "Some are born posthumously!"
Golden Nib~ In me drunken state me overstepped me bounds with that particular statement. Me went looking (as you have obviously done so as well) and found lots of jokes made by Einstein, Feynman, Sartre and others.
Will check out those sites in the morning, thanks and STOMP.
Now, to answer your question. Since I believe all things are related (notice the butterfly) and that reality is perception, I find knowledge in everything that comes my way and to which I pay attention. And this of course means I must think for myself, but that doesn't mean I should listen to what someone else has thought before me.
Change this to: "but that doesn't mean I shouldn't listen to what someone else has thought before me."
Nibbles~ There be so many great minds producing original and wonderful thoughts, that we would be fools not to listen to them. Yet how so much more foolish would we be iffin we never thought fer ourselves or questioned the ideas of others.
Girl, you STOMP!
Thich Nhat Hanh tells this story.
There was once a psychologist who got a job at a rural mental hospital. Upon his arrival, he noticed a man walking around who exhibited pretty normal behavior. But because it was out in the country, there were some ducks and other animals also on the grounds. After a while as one of them approached this man, he ran away screaming. It took the orderlies a while to catch him and calm him down.
The new doctor asked an intern about it. "Oh, that man thinks he is a grain of corn."
The doctor worked extensively with the man. Day and night he was to repeat "I am a human being, not a grain of corn." At first he was to say it aloud, and then after he progressed he could say it silently to himself.
After a few months, the doctor followed up with him. He said that he was doing much better. He was a human being, after all, not a grain of corn.
Eventually the doctor arranged for the man's release from the hospital, and even agreed to escort him to his family's home. As they were walking up to the door, a chicken was there in the yard, and the man turned and ran away. The doctor went after him and caught up with him, shocked by his reaction.
"Why did you run away!? You know that you are a human being, not a grain of corn!" The man nodded, and said "yes, I know I am a human being, and not a grain of corn. But how does the chicken know that!?"
*Ba-dum BUM*
Okay, this example may do more to prove your point. But it's hilarious when the doctor agrees to walk a patient home. Also, Thich's accent is pretty funny when he tells it, so he's got that whole thing going.
Thanks for the forthright answer, Monster.
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