Victoria Castle is the author of The Trance of Scarcity or Scare City as i like to say. Her post today on The Fool is worth a read. To learn more about her book and work, visit her site by clicking here

“It’s far too late,
and things are far too bad
for pessimism.”

Dee Hock, founder of Visa

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These times feel so dire that among the first things we sacrifice are humor, laughter, mirth, and playfulness.  Funny (yes, pun intended) how the true sages and mystics retain theirs no matter what.   It seems that those who have dived most deeply into the mystery and pain of humanity are the ones most able to keep their minds open and their hearts light.

As well as keeping our hearts light (we think fun and laughter are completely laudable activities), one of the reasons we started our Improv troupe was to increase our resilience – the ability to think on our feet, to take whatever was tossed our way and be able to mine it for gold.  Or, as a spiritual grand poopaa might say, to be able to turn any experience into a blessing.

Can you think of a more useful skill than resilience – particularly now? To be able to take the current conditions, i.e. throngs of thirsty people and several tons of unwanted lemons, and know to get that juicer going?  To see opportunity rather than linger in inconvenience.  Resilience is the new buzz word as far as I’m concerned.  I want to surround myself with people who can recover readily from compression (root word from the Latin “to leap back”) and meet what’s next.

Almost all cultures and traditions have had the role of the Fool (aka jester, sacred clown, truth teller with a funny hat).  The Fool was seen as key to the tribe’s survival both physically and spiritually. The Greeks, Romans, Chinese, indigenous cultures, and all royal courts in Europe had a performer whose mirth made him a source of entertainment as well as biting truth. In fact, part of his role was to insert doubt and misgivings into what was considered off limits – all well lubricated with great wit to minimize the chafe.

To be effective, today’s Fool does indeed need to use humor and timing and mirth.  Jocularity – the art of being funny with any material – attracts a loyal audience rather than driving them off or inspiring them to start heating up the tar and feathers

We’ve been blessed with some truly skilled Fools in our world:   George Carlin, one of the most astute cultural observers of our time; Monty Python, masters of farce who treated no material as untouchable; Jon Stewart who has one of the most watched news shows and it airs on Comedy Central; Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me on NPR with their clever re-looking at world events.  Authors like Christopher Moore and Christopher Buckley who are facile at twisting the ordinary so that we can see it anew. Let us thank them all and many more.

Fools are not just for our entertainment, they are essential to our ultimate survival.  They are the ones who have the clear sightedness and verbal dexterity to reveal our shared vulnerabilities – and possibly the way out of them. The Fool does not collude with complacency. S/he calls us awake not by inflicting pain, but inflicting aliveness – starting with our laugh muscles.