Posts tagged ‘Wisdom’
“I’ve been alive forever and I wrote the very first song…” –’God,’ to quote Bruce Johnston
The entrance examiner for Songwriters Heaven asks the candidate: “WHO WRITES THE SONGS THAT MAKE THE WHOLE WORLD SING?” The candidate sings out, “Bruce Johnston, of the Beach Boys, wrote ‘I Write the Songs (That Make the Whole World Sing)’ and said he wrote it about where music comes from, God.” The examiner asks, “Is that a fact?” The candidate replies, “I read it at SongFacts.com.” The examiner thinks, “Thank God! I thought it was Barry Manilow.”
“I intend to live forever, or die trying.” -Groucho Marx
The audience is booing the 100-year-old comic for boring them with the same old joke. Under his breath, the comic mutters, “God, don’t let me die up here on the stage, let me kill the audience.” Everybody in the audience keels over like reaped wheat. The comic cries,“God,I was speaking metaphorically!” A voice replies, “In that case, either write a new joke before you step off the stage, or be taken literally.”
The subject of today’s seriously funny philosophical post: The finite and infinite benefits of writing a new joke, where fatal metaphors, namely Father Time, a.k.a. the Grim Reaper, do not get the last laugh. The finite benefit: Writing such a joke focuses our imagination on a timeless state of consciousness where there is nothing to do but be happy, and all of time to do it now.
The infinite benefit: We realize our greatest desire now.
Aug 10
“I’ve got all the money I’ll ever need if I die by four o’clock.” -Henny Youngman
Today, we are laughing with the gods at a finite metaphor’s cuckoo relationship to wealth, to love, and to life (not to say money, sex, and death). The finite metaphor is an invention of the human imagination: a metering device known as the clock.
“They took away time, and they gave us the clock.” –Abdullah Ibrahim
Once you get an inkling of what time itself is made of, its finite metaphors become seriously funny.
“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.” –Douglas Adams
Time…as meted out by clocks, calendars, birthday cards, sympathy cards…is a seriously limited metaphor of life, the universe, et al. Did you know you have the power to trade it in for an infinite one?
“The gods too are fond of a joke.” –Aristotle
“At the height of laughter the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.” –Jean Houston
Laughter is the music of happiness played on a scale from tickled to amused to delighted to elated to ecstatic to… Well, that’s plenty for most of us. Those who laugh at the same joke the gods are fond of, make light of the cause of unhappiness.
“We are never happy until we learn to laugh at ourselves.” –Dorothy Dix
“Don’t take life too seriously. You will never get out alive.” –Elbert Hubbard
Life in a lush garden of infinite love with only one snake in the grass, is 99.99% fun. Once we learn how to be fruitful and multiply, though, seriousness gets the last laugh. No worries! On this seriously funny philosophical blog, we restore the default.
“Life is too important to be taken seriously.” Oscar Wilde
Oh, The Book of Lists by David Wallenchinsky and Amy Wallace records nine cases of fatal hilarity since the 12th Century BCE. So, albeit improbable, it is possible to die laughing. But it is impossible not to induce terminal boredom with an overdose of seriousness.
“You should live everyday like it’s your birthday.” –Paris Hilton
What planet is Paris on? Could it be the one where Cinderellas outnumber all the fairy godmothers and charming princes (not to mention billionaire grandfathers) combined? For sure, we say. Because laughing with the gods – a metaphor of priceless and timeless happiness in the everyday – is not only our birthright, but our reason for being on this planet today.
Aug 1
“A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes.” –Ludwig Wittgenstein
This blogsite consists of priceless pearls of wisdom – a metaphor of insights on the meaning and purpose of life – that spill overboard from our book – scattered among the author’s seriously funny philosophy of life, the universe, et al. – and The Art in the Everyday by Pierre Leduc.
“God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.” –Voltaire
Our blog may tweak memories of all you knew when you knew all there is to know, or open new channels of self-awareness, or just relieve boredom. If it makes you grin, smile, and laugh out loud, it’s working. If it inspires you to think up and write a seriously funny philosophical joke, your words could unlock a treasure.
“Many a treasure besides Ali Baba’s is unlocked with a verbal key.” –Henry Van Dyke
This blogger’’s philosophy is simple: We laugh with the gods – a metaphor of infinite happiness in the everyday – when we make light of the cause of our mortal worries in our everyday thoughts and words.
“The person who knows how to laugh at himself will never cease to be amused.” –Shirley MacLaine
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