Joking Aside

I read a profound article in the Huffington Post, called "Careless Words and Callous Deeds", by David Bromwich  which described the way we degrade the quality of our civic life by speaking incendiary words that are said to get attention, which then take on a life of their own, eventually becoming acts our better selves wouldn't condone, and then moving along in our thoughts to another subject by desensitizing ourselves to that reality by moving that shame into the realm of humor. That is an fascinating description of the dark side of "growing up"; particularly the last phase of joking.

In a sense, all growing up that we do in all parts of our life is like that. In this case, the growing up is dark because it moves us in a direction that our hearts would not choose for us to go.

The ability to joke, to take the power out of things that we would otherwise revere, is one of the forms of magick that most people know how to use at least on a subconscious basis; and it is the way that most people develop. Forcing all our thought through our heart on its way to our mouth might help us to develop in more positive ways.