Why Laughter is the True Measure of Seriousness

They say the true mark of seriousness is a sense of humor. When I cannot laugh at myself, it usually means I take myself too seriously and what I do too lightly. Joy is the serious business of Heaven. To be truly serious about what I do in life I must not take myself too seriously.

When I take myself too seriously, I can’t relax and play. If I can’t play, I can’t be serious about what I do. Play is a serious business of both heaven and earth. I must take play seriously and myself lightly. When I do, I come to a place where civilization was born.

“For many years the conviction has grown upon me that civilization arises and unfolds in and as play.” Johan Huizinga,?Homo Ludens

I cannot take anything seriously enough until I can laugh at myself while doing it. The ability to laugh at myself is a clear sign that I rely on something else beyond myself. If I can’t laugh at myself, it shows that I have only myself to rely on. I become too tense, too perfectionistic, too exacting, too weighty in my own eyes.

When I take myself too seriously I am unproductive. I push myself too hard. When I am serious about play I think little of myself. I am engrossed in the play.?I can laugh at myself because I know that play, not me, is all-important.?He who is serious about play knows that play is something done through us, not by us.

We feel the Flow and step into it with all the seriousness we can find. We yield to the Flow, we commit to it, and it carries us. A leaf trembling in the breeze may appear to shake vigorously and energetically, yet it remains fully relaxed — it’s the wind that does all the work. If the leaf is serious about its autumn dance, it opens itself to the play of the wind.

The moment we stop relying on ourselves, we become dead serious about participating in the enlivening dance of life.?We know that dance happens in us and through us — not by us. We do not “do the dance.” The dance performs itself in us when we open ourselves to the Wind. We step in the Flow and begin trembling — not because of something in us but because of the Flow.

When we are dead serious about relying on Another we come alive. We take off and fly, carried by the Wind that makes us weightless.

“Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly.” G.K. Chesterton

If I take myself too seriously, I am too weighty to fly.?To fly, one must acquire the weightlessness of Play. In the Play, we are freed from the gravity of “Self.” We make like a leaf and blow. We become light and capable of flying in the Wind.?We acquire the ears to hear the celestial Music and join the Dance.

“It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.” G.K. Chesterton