I was made for sunny days

As quoted by Paul Krassner (2005) in One Hand Jerking, "The area of life in which ridicule is permissible is steady shrinking, and a dangerous tendency is becoming manifest to take ourselves with undue seriousness. The enemy of humor is fear and this, alas, is an age of fear. As I see it, the only pleasure of living is that every joke should be made, every thought expressed, every line of investigation, irrespective of its direction, pursued to the uttermost limit that human ingenuity, courage and understanding can take it...By its nature, humor is anarchistic, and it may well be that those who seek to supress or limit laughter are more dangerous than all the subversive conspiracies which the FBI every has or ever will uncover. Laughter, in fact, is the most efective of all subversive conspiracies, and it operates on our side." - Malcolm Muggeridge, former editor of Punch magazine(31).

And so, it seems that in times like these, we must laugh, not just because it is the only means of slaughtering the demonic goats and Satanic roosters that plague our dreams, but out of responsiblity. Our obligation is to respect the specific humorous legacy of those whom we have lost, but also to respect the masses, the public, society and the collective humanity. Perhaps it is only now, through this experience, becoming clear that there is no other way, that laughter is the height of our soul's progression and that the funniest of people are truly the godliest. And as our routes have turned to sandpaper, hot coals and broken glass, we've built up callouses on our feet thick with the laughter. This month, my work in the Peace Corps, the direction of my efforts and energies, has been thrown into trying, for the love of God, to keep laughing.

A process aided by the sheer absurdity that is my life here. I know you read this blog for those stories, the ones that demonstrate just how far from "life as normal" my normal life now is, and in the next month I will make a genuine effort to record some of these funny stories for you. However, as this first month has stetched my coping skills, my independence, my emotional maturity and honestly, every other aspect of my personal human experience beyond a level I could have ever imagined, I am right now at a loss for silly anecdotes and the paragraphs upon paragraphs of backstory necessary to relate them to you. I'm sorry if I've disappointed you.

But, for now I hope it is sufficient for you to hear that I am very happy here. My new life in Niger is simultaneously the most challenging experience of my life thus far, a personal struggle each new day, and the simplest life I have ever had the pleasure of leading. And does it get much better than that? I busy myself here with living and allow things to come my way as they see fit with as little opposition as I can manage. (Of course I never imagined the things coming my way would be shaped like herds of bony cows and millet-laden donkey carts, but shit, why not.)

As we put a good friend on a plane last night, as we sat together and remembered the tragic passing of another, as we bid goodbye the day of swear-in to a third, I have been reminded that loss and laughter should never be seperated, and that our survival and development depend on both. And I think those who are no longer with us would want us to be laughing.

So, I'm laughing a lot.