In the Game of Life, the Joker - the wild card - is the most significant player in the game - the deck.

During an appearance at a university I heard Dick Gregory tell this joke, and I quote: "The wife feeling sexually ready called out, more correctly down, to her husband, and said, "Come upstairs and just make love?" The husband replied, "Baby you know, I can't do both, I can only come upstaris or make love."
If life is a cosmic joke as casual observation reveals it to be, then who are you when you are authentically Man Alive or Woman Alive?" Could it be that at that moment when you are being authentic, when the real you is in evidence, even if such is not evident to others, that you are a joker? And even if your behavior is that of a different character.
We tend to either take life too seriously or live as cynics? There is a better way of being and it is not just a position between being serious and a cynic. There is a natural way of being that can best be described as being a joker.
The Joker is a fantastic person. He may be the life of the party even when he is clowning. Indeed, the clown is one of the faces of the Joker. In playing cards, sometimes the joker is considered to be the wild card, depending on its relationship to another card or cards. It may become as significant or, even moreso, than any other card in the deck, even though otherwise it is valueless. We take life too seriously and sometimes we are dead serious, a state that may hasten ones death. Our non-joking lifestyle deprives us of pleasure, joy and good or optimum health. A person need not be serious to be a responsible and loving human being. Rmembering how to laugh, and we all did know that at one time, even it if was prior to birth, be humorous, play and sing joyous songs pay great dividends.
The Bible records that Abraham laughed when he was told by an angel that Sarah, his non-child-barren and beyond child- bearing age wife, would conceive a child. It appears that his laughing when informed of this enabled him to become the "Father of many nations." Indeed, Sarah conceived a child. Sometimes, we think about Sarah's old age but overlook the fact that Abraham was older than Sarah. So his taking what he heard as a joke was not only based on the beyond child bearing age of Sarah, but his beyond child fathering age. It is apparent that they laughed a lot and for a long time. It is easy to deduce from this encounter that their nupital life had never been so good.
In this book, "Anatomy of an Illness," Norman Cousins reveals how laughter healed him of what had been diagnosed as incurable cancer. He said, "It was the funny side that turned it around for me." He goes on to suggest that frivolity and light-of-heart should be the nature of our response to reality and to life. Could it be that life - all that we conceive to be in the world - is a cosmic joke?" Supporting evidence declaring this to be true is overwhelming, but our illusions blind us to this truth. Wiseman Solomon states the case for laughter succinctly when he says, "All is vanity." Dare you take vanity seriously.
The ability to use humor is another capability of the Joker. With a facetious turn of thought or twist of a member of the body, such as the way he moves his head or a foot, the joker can take a playful and fanciful side of the conventional and, in the process disarm people who are afraid of themselves and others. They may come to accept themselves, at least for a brief period of time, and in doing that accept others as well. This action of the Joker can be a powerful weapon, sometimes making the use of dangerous weapons unnecessary in confrontative situations that are violence-prone.
With the free play of imagination, humor is readily availalbe to everyone. The free play of imagination permits a person to move beyond taking a word or idea at its face value, and to change not only the context but the construct when desiraable. In the free play of imagination, it is also necessary for a person to recognize that laws, also called authority, and gospel, the later, a euphemism for the voice of God, are simply illusions. They are not to be taken seriously, even when a person chooses to obey or adhere to them. Laws are usually man-made and frequently they foster injustice and God, we need to know, always speaks for Himself. Refuse to believe the big lie, "God has no hands but our hands, no feet, but our feet, no eyes but our eyes, and the litany goes on and on" detailing what man can do for God. If that were the case God who created the Heaven and the Earth and everything therein would be in a sad and somewhat precarious or helpless condition.
A true joker is not a part of the "make-me-laugh" or "I'll make-you- laugh" syndrome, examples of which can be readily seen on television or experienced when frequenting many amusement and entertainment centers. Unfortuantely, some people can laugh only when they are being entertained, i. e., when someone else is cracking "staged," or "canned" jokes. The individual's own joking ability has been greatly suppressed, if not impaired, by a "perform-for-me-make-me-laugh"
mentality pervading the land. The mentality which makes many people spectators, not participants in life's unfoldments, especially the joyous ones. Spectators are objects "done-to" or "done-for." Participants are "doers." The laughter of and elicited by these performers "for hire" people is mostly contrived, phony, conjured, a sham, shallow and at times absurd. Oftentimes it is experienced as what Jean Paul Sartre called the Theater of the absurd . It is short-lived for those paying to be entertained, serving as a narcotic or a feel-good drug that is usually short-lived. But laughter that is intrinsically activated and soulful, even when just a smile, is more pleasurable, delightful, and sustaining. Such laughter produces cheerfulness that pervades the laughing person's total personality.
Playfulness is also a capability of the Joker. Teasing, kidding, being chldlike and light-of-heart are some of the experiences of his playfulnesss. Just as nonfiction can be as adventuresome as fiction, tragedy can be as exciting as comedy. At times it takes the joker to help us to know that truth, a truth which time and time again proves to be our salvation.
Unexpected and unpredictable behavior may be employed by the Joker. Usually it is harmless enough. Yet, it can make glad, heal and inspire. The Joker may wear a black sock and a white sock, or white shoes, as Pat Boone. He may tell you what he really feels, including how he feels about you, or let his child which is as much a part of him as his adult play, even in his nakedness, right before your eyes, as he declares "See what I got." Sometimes a person may be surprised or embarrassed by what he experiences when in the presence of a Joker, even cringe, but he may also know value-rootedly and deep down within his guts that that Joker is being more authentic than he or someone he calls a friend.
I will now end this discourse on the Joker, but not before telling an innocent joke. I can tell this joke because now there are good relations between China and the United States, despite the fact that recently the U. S. Government cited new facts and figures which indicate that Chinese spies are more active in the United States than Russian spies. Of course, a visit to Wal-Mart shows the real nature of Chinese-American relations. I suppose we can give credit and thanks to the late former President Richard M. Nixon who had a knack for being able to "win friends and influence nations" and some American citizens, as he put it, "The silent majority." But remember, Nixon told the American people, "I'm, not a crook." The American people could not afford to take him at his word and he resigned the presidency.
Now, on with that American-Chinese joke that I promised to tell. It couldn't possibly be any more indigestible than "American-Chinese" food, especially American-Chinese chop suey. (The stage: The Joker faces his audience without a smile. As a matter of fact, he is looking serious, for a change). He speaks: "A Chinese bought a restaurant, yes the entire restaurant, located on a corner of Restaruant Row." The next day he was trying to decide what sign to put on his restaurant, after noticing that all three restaurants on the other corners in close proximity to his had signs concerning their "waking" state or open hours. One restaurant sign read, "Open twenty-four hours." A sign on another restaurant across the street said, "Always open." and on a third restaurant, the sign said, "We never close." The next day the Chinese restauranteur put up an equally impressive sign on his restaurant which said, "Me-wide-awake-too." Like the Chinese restauranterur, I will sign-out or, is it sign-off? and get off, or is it on? the Joker's path by simply saying "Me-wide-awake-too!"
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Note: To read more about "The Joker, " purchase your copy of "The Mutuality Warrior" by Uriah J. Fields.
It can be purchased from Authorsden.com's bookstore.
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Copyright 2007 by Uriah J. Fields.