Our everyday sense of humour

I love comedy and I love to laugh. How about you?

I recent weeks, I’ve watched a number of comedy programs on our national CBC network. One was the very last episode of “Royal Canadian Air Farce”-a long running comedic treatment of current news and Canadian culture. As they have posted on the website, “After 35 years of laughter, we hope you enjoyed the flight.” On another program, there was a comedian doing a monologue in Winnipeg before a packed house. And then, there was a program with a series of “ethnic” comedians doing routines on their own ethnic groups.

I’m curbing my TV time but was particularly curious about these programs. One of them caused me such discomfort that I turned it off. There are different types of comedy and they hold appeal “to each his own” sense of humour.

The one I turned off was at a place where the Canadian comedian was making fun of an American political figure. The two countries are so close in so many ways but I found the “humour” to have crossed a line. The comments were disrespectful of the person and I further questioned what entitlement a comedian has at making people laugh at the expense of a person from another country.

This is not new. I can think of a number of routines where comedians have featured characters from other cultures and countries. I wonder if I am being over sensitive. Knowing that, in the one program, the ethnic comedians were telling stories about their “own people” was not offensive. It seems that they have some entitlement. When is it that comedy has crossed a line?

I could leave that question aimed at the case of professional comedians playing the audiences but is not also a question about how we exercise our sense of humour everyday?

Entering a new year and “movement”

The header proclaims “light~energy~movement” but there hasn’t been much movement here since April! I don’t believe that there is anything magical about the transition from one calendar year to the next. It becomes an occasion to review what has been accomplished during the past 365 days and, perhaps, make some promises to oneself about what might be done through the next 365 days.

I have made a list of personal accomplishments and “headway” during 2008. It was a gratifying exercise and quite an encouragement. I have also made a list of some short-term goals as well as set up a system for registering “projects” in a number of areas.

In my “being/doing,” has there been some “succession,” that is, a “following of one thing after another in time” (from http://wordweb.info)? Is there movement in my life? In what aspects of my life is there movement—movement with which I am pleased or otherwise?

I cannot help but think that the movement is related to energy and light. That is a relationship that needs to be explored. For now, a commitment to revisit this site with more posts would be good movement in 2009.

What will be signs of “good movement” for you in 2009? Enjoy the next 365 days!

Energy (1)

We don’t always get the connection between energy and light. Strike a match, put it to the wick of a candle and we can see the light. Probably, we think very little about it. As city dwellers, the connection is made clearer. No matter how many times we flip the switch, when there is a power failure, the light doesn’t come on. Blown fuse, tripped breaker, grid failure—the connection is broken and then light and energy are seen as a relationship.

Light (3)

While journeying to visit my wife, I had an unforgettable experience. Lynne was away in Manitoba studying for her MA in Counselling. It was October and I had just completed a season on a small cruise ship. In her absence, I was keeping our house in Port Colborne, Ontario on the shores of Lake Erie. The drive took me through Detroit and south of Chicago and then upward through Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota. I had passed through Grand Forks after midnight—lit but very quiet. Driving about 18 hours a day, I was pushing northwards to cross the border so that I could arrive at her apartment outside of Winnipeg early that morning. No traffic around, the dark, open plains surrounded me. This was solitude. There’s no reason to look upwards in conditions like that but I became aware of a pattern in the night sky. Leaning forward and looking up, I saw the unmistakable appearance of aurora borealis. I have seen them a number of times while on ships and in Northern Ontario but this display seemed to surround me. I now regret not stopping the car, to get out and just stand and watch. As I drove, I kept saying to myself, “Wow!” It felt as though I was in the midst of this circle of light. “Wow!” It was beautiful. It was impressive. It seemed that the lights were there just for me to experience. I felt that I was under the fringe of God’s robe. In that light I caught a glimpse of the transcendent.

Light (2)

When I was a boy, I was part of a small group that took a tour of caverns in eastern Ontario. We followed the guide down along a rough wooden walkway and descended into the refreshing coolness of an underground hall. The path was lit by a string of simple, incandescent bulbs. At one point, the guide asked if we were ready for a new experience. He turned off the lights. For the first time in my life, I knew what absolute, physical darkness was. Eyes wide opened, I held my hand just inches in front of my face and could see nothing of it. This was a place where no light reached. Obviously, the experience has stayed with me for many, many years.

The question now is whether I can tolerate any places in my life where the light doesn’t reach.

Light (1)

I am passionate about photography. I have said, “It’s all about light.” Of course, the photographer has a subject (or subjects) in the composition but, it is all about light. This is easily seen if you have ever taken photographs outside and had a slight delay during which the clouds covered the sun. The change of lighting changes the appearance of the composition. It doesn’t have to be a lot of light. It has to be the right light (whatever that is) that excites you enough to want to capture an image.

Is there a sense in which this notion of “the right light” enters other areas of life?

Why “realizations”?

When we started our coaching business a few years ago, we had the normal struggle of deciding upon a suitable name—one that would lend itself to a web domain name as well. “Realization” was a key word that fitted into the activity of coaching. Since choosing the label for our business, I’ve been gratified to see it appear and re-appear in writings about coaching and personal growth. I consider my partner, Lynne, and myself fortunate to have choosen “Realization Life Coaching” to describe our activity. 

More so, I consider it wonderful to have a variety of realizations that are those “AHA!” moments. They come from personal reflection. They come from the comments of others. They come from apparently no particular cause and are like a pleasant surprise.

Borrowing from the appearance of the aurora borealis (Northern Lights), a realization is an encounter with light that is exciting and, sometimes, awe inspiring. A realization generates a certain amount of inner energy and can be quite stimulating. One of the special things about a realization is that it doesn’t have to be limited. Though experienced in the moment it can lead to movement. 

My goal is to maintain a weblog that has those qualities of light, energy and movement. We shall see!

About “worldview”

It was surprising to find how little used was the term “worldview” when I was doing studies for a Master of Education degree in the 1990s. I had been introduced to the term in the 70s through my reading of works by Christian writers. While it was not a word that I would have used in everyday conversation, it was quite familiar and quite comfortable. I learned a lot more about it as I worked through my thesis studies. By no means an expert in German philosophy (with philosophy, I’m like a sponge in an ocean of water and a sponge has limited capacity), I have adopted “worldview” as a theme in my life.

Anything expressed here is a reflection of my worldview. Over the next few weeks, I’ll unfold a little bit of my understanding of the topic of worldview with the hope that readers will find it to be useful and beneficial. Your comments will help me to gain insight into your worldview.