History

A necessary error is not a mistake. If something is not what you hoped it would be, it still matters – just differently. For many, the past is a resource to be culled and put to service for the sake of the future. Interpret this past in this way as a means toward this future. Although nearly everyone exercises this kind of thinking, it is both an affront to history and an abuse of memory. It reduces the overfull vitality of the past, stemming its full power, such that what remains may be harnessed and put to use. But the past is not ours; it is rather we who belong to it.

The future bears down on the present, and the past lingers still. There is no divorcing the present from either. They bleed together, forming a single inexhaustible continuum. Nevertheless, we relate to our past and our possible future in dramatically different ways. While the future changes with the slightest provocation, the past is not so flighty. It matters. It has a weight and establishes our grounding. Furthermore, the bearing it holds on our present is not wholly chosen. We cannot decide what will have mattered to us, and how past matters shall effect us. The past has its own character, and asserts itself without regard for our desire. For this reason, it is up to us to be receptive to the true character of the past, to peaceably align ourselves with its direction, and not attempt violence upon it. This is the only way we can attain a clear view for the future, and a justified confidence in our capacity to move into it.

"History is written by the victors." I have won, therefore I will present history in such a way as to ensure that I will continue to win. I have lost, therefore I will interpret the past in such a way that I may become victorious in the future. But history is not written on any paper, nor illustrated in any art, nor constructed through any power structure. History is history. It is that past which is written upon the present, whether that be the present world, our present selves, or something besides. History is performative, and we do engage in its performance. But we are not its creator, owner or prophet – rather it is we who are created, possessed, and guided by it. History is not its writing, but something besides. It is more real, more undeniable, and entirely unaccountable. True history is not given to interpretation, for it is immune to every such exercise of power.

"History is written by the victors." But why do we think of the past only with regard to loss and gain? Isn't history more than a series of contests? History is insensitive to the values and motives of man. Everything is preserved as the past daily dies, each event and person given the continued vitality they deserve. There is history, and it is written daily. It is receptive to our present, and how we choose to remember it does matter. For a correct understanding of the past, we must move past thinking in terms of victory and defeat, for history knows nothing of either. People determine what constitutes victory, and history is insensitive to our determinations.

History has its own motives, things which matter to it and come to matter to us regardless of our want. We would benefit from being receptive to our determining past, rather than seeking endlessly to interpret it on our terms, to achieve flight from the natural course of history by hiding in a wholly and only human future – a future that can never come.

Comedy

There is nothing funny about the expected. Comedy is born with the advent of the inexplicable. Just as an infant giggles with delight playing peekaboo, so too is humor borne always from surprise.

A joke is a curtain lifted, a laugh the resolution of a rift torn in the mind. This is why humor is so vitally important for the promotion and preservation of sanity. A laugh is the garbage man taking out the trash. Without that garbage man, the paradoxes of life would pile endlessly higher, blinding us to everything but chaos. For there is no way to repair ourselves of the searing rifts of life except through laughter. When taken seriously, a paradox leads always to madness. Only by taking things lightly can we hope to rid ourselves of the overwhelming weight of life, thereby paving the path to clarity of vision, clarity of thought, and a higher sanity.

A joke is a revelation. The apparently mundane is revealed to be substantially impossible, and the incommensurability of these opposites compels us to... laugh. But the joker is not surprised by his own joke; he already knows the punchline. Knowing the joke's end, his art lies in deception. He must keep concealed the essential moment of the joke until its proper time, at which point he delivers the unexpected truth with expert force. The joker must walk a line and deliver a punch. In this way, the joker is a combatant - and a liar.

If the joker is a liar, might also the liar be a joker? And if the liar does not laugh, doesn't that just make him more honest? A laugh can be had without a joker, and a joke can be told without a teller. Suffering considerable loss, who of us is brave enough to laugh?

All lies are potential jokes - it all depends on how seriously you take them. In comedy, white lies become light chuckles, significant deceptions become sick jokes, and flagrant abuses of trust become black commentaries on the gut-shot absurdity of life. All the world's a stage, and all of us merely players... but are our lives comedy or tragedy? It all depends on how seriously we take them.