How To Be Your Own Court Jester

Ed Hays has a suggestion on how we can regain our balance by playing the fool. Hays says that when you find yourself overcome by some worry, “call in the clowns.”

Exaggerate the issue as much as you can, “Oh, God, this is the WORST thing that has EVER happened to me. It’s worse than the Tsunami of 2004.”

In the way of a clown, hold your head, walk around in circles, roll around on the floor, weep fake tears…then have a good laugh. Be both audience and clown. When you are done, you may have the problem in some kind of perspective.

To Ed’s suggestion, I would add this. It’s all about timing. The clown strategy can be a healing one at the right time. On the other hand there’s nothing worse than someone telling you that you should laugh when it is still time for real tears.

So everything in its season.


Peter

The New Church - Transformation

Is the Church going to die out in our lifetime? It is just as possible that the Church will be radically different but still alive in some form.

Take the Solovetsky Monastery for instance. It was founded in the 15th Century by two monks looking for some peace and quiet. It seemed like a good place, 650 miles north of Moscow in the shadow of the Arctic Circle. Their spirituality could be questioned since the monks also served as prison wardens for the czar’s enemies. Stalin took this one step further by turning Solovetsky into a gulag. Half of his enemies imprisoned here died in the 1920s and 30s: 40,000 in all.

In 1990 monks reclaimed the monastery.

(reported in the Jan./Feb. Atlantic.)



Peter