An Abundance of Good

Without going into a lot of detail, I currently find myself peering into a future of financial uncertainty.

And I have never felt richer than I do right now, in this moment.

My life is positively over-flowing with good.  The wealth of love and support I have felt from family and friends in the last few weeks has been overwhelming.  Emails, phone calls, hugs, and precious notes and home-made gifts left on my doorstep have filled my heart with such gratitude and appreciation I feel like I’m about to burst with the abundance of good being showered on me.

Last week, when I was concerned about the health of a loved one, the doctor’s office called to tell me that the tests had come back and showed that my loved one was “perfectly normal and healthy.”  And in that moment I was reminded of what’s really important – every worry and anxiety about the future faded into insignificance when I heard the words: “He’s perfectly normal and healthy.” A few days later my oldest son returned from university – bringing with him his quiet confidence and ready smile – and I felt like the richest woman on earth.

Out of the silent, silver moon,
Out of the mist of the Milky Way,
Out of the gleams of the sentry stars,
Out of the after-day - 

Out of the wonderful songs of birds,
Out of the storm-wind’s whistling throes,
Out of the living green of fields,
Out of the bloom of the rose - 

Out of the music laughter holds,
Out of the lips with kisses curled - 
Boundless assurances everywhere,
Out of the joy of the world.
- Max Ehrmann

Happy Thanksgiving, my dear Humoristian hooligans! May you be filled with the joy of seeing all the abundance of good in your life – and may your day be filled with laughter and kindness!

Bossy Britches Busybodies

“There once was a chap who was ‘Christian’

the type who was bossy and itchin’

to put his nose in your business

and kumbaya you with Jesus

and follow you from your bedroom to kitchen…”

- excerpt from The Humoristian Chronicles: A Most Unusual Fellowship

It seems to me that our world is now divided into two teams: The Bossy Britches Busybodies are on one side of the field, earnestly and busily trying to force everyone else to conform to their ideologies; and the Live-and-Let-Live folks are on the other side of the field, bemused expressions on their faces, trying to comprehend why it’s so important to the Busybodies that everyone hold the same beliefs as them.

I have never understood this need the Bossy Britches Busybodies seem to have for everyone to share their beliefs. I’ve never understood why it seems so important to the BBB that everyone else think, and live their lives, the same way they do.  Busybodies seem so completely sure of themselves. So completely intolerant, and afraid, of beliefs and lifestyles different from their own – so quick to judge and condemn, and stand in self-righteous indignation against anyone who happens to disagree with them.  And the irony of all this is that most of the people who are on the BBB team would tell you that they are followers of a religion whose leader preached that we should “judge not, that ye be not judged” and who told us to love our neighbors, love our enemies, and to take the “beam” out of our own eye, before we point to the “mote” in someone else’s eye.

Personally, I have no problem with people believing whatever it is they want to believe about stuff – as my dear Aunt Junie used to say, “Whatever makes your socks go up and down” – so long, of course, as those beliefs don’t cause harm to others.

Frankly, I don’t think that our beliefs are as important as what we do with those beliefs.

If our beliefs lead to a place of hate, anger, and fear, and cause us to try to deny another citizen his rights – this is probably a sign that our beliefs are not helpful to the world.  Every citizen of our nation should have the exact same rights as every other citizen – regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation.  And – so long as no one else is harmed – every citizen should have the right to the “pursuit of happiness.” What business is it of yours or mine what consenting adults do with each other in the privacy of their own home? Why, I wonder, are Busybodies so fascinated with someone else’s sex life?  And why should anyone want to  deny someone else the right to marry the person he loves just because he has a different sexual orientation?

If, on the other hand, our beliefs lead us to a place of kindness, humanity, and compassion, and cause us to seek social justice – to “heal the sick” and “feed the hungry” and shelter the homeless (as Jesus admonished us to do) – that’s probably a good sign that our beliefs are worth keeping.

“For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.”

II Thessalonians 3: 11,12

In other words, mind your own business, for crying out loud!

The Story of Moses (Homonym Version)

Their wants was a chap named Moses who parted waters and saw bushes that talked and rote rules four living an upwrite life. He was weigh cool. He led the children of Israel out of slavery and across the desert planes, and two freedom. He dyed at a vary old age. And because he led the children of Israel out of Egypt and slavery, he prepared the weigh fore the gods of comedy too come on Earth: Groucho, Harpo, Zeppo, Phil Silverman, Sid Caesar, Jon Stewart, Jerry Seinfeld, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, David Steinberg, Richard Lewis, Christopher Guest, Buddy Hackett, Mel Brooks, Albert Brooks, Rita Rudner, Fanny Brice, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Victor Borge, and a hole host of heavenly others…

(Excerpt from *The Humoristian Chronicles: A Most Unusual Fellowship*)

“You can go!”

Years ago I saw a movie called Witness - you maybe saw it, too – it’s the one with Harrison Ford as a detective who ends up in an Amish community.  One of the scenes from that movie that has left a lasting impression on me was the scene near the end where the members of the Amish community surround the bad guys and, without violence, make them stop doing the bad guy stuff.

I just now saw the clip of the students getting pepper sprayed by the police officer at UC Davis.  I sat here, feeling shocked and helpless to do anything to aid these students, as the officer casually sprayed that row of students as if he was spray-painting a fence or something.

I had expected the video to end there, but it didn’t. For a few more minutes I watched, appalled, as students got dragged away by police, watched as officers tried to push the students and spectators back, watched as officers pointed their weapons at the protestors.  The tension and oppression came through the screen and filled me with a deep sadness and discouragement about what has happened to my beloved country.

But as I continued to watch, there was a shift in the power.

The students began chanting, “OUR university!” – re-claiming their home. And then one student (with a megaphone maybe?)  said, “You can go. We won’t follow you.” And all the students began chanting, “You can go! You can go!” – and I watched as the officers slowly backed-up and left the campus.  Watching the students work together to combat the oppression that had moved onto their campus, I was so proud of them. They were models of what non-violent resistance should look like – holding their ground, standing in solidarity, and pushing back the violence and ugliness that had invaded their home.

It reminded me of that scene from Witness, and it reminded me, too, of the hope and inspiration I felt after I watched the movie, Gandhi.  It reminded me of the power of Truth and justice, and one of my favorite Gandhi quotes: “When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it – always.”

***

This old hymn has been singing through my head a lot lately:

“A glorious day is dawning, and o’er the waking earth

The heralds of the morning are springing into birth

In dark and hidden places, there shines the blessed light:

The beam of Truth displaces the darkness of the night.

The advocates of error foresee the glorious morn,

And hear in shrinking terror the watchword of reform:

It rings from hill and valley, it breaks oppression’s chain.

A thousand free men rally, and swell the mighty strain.”

- Lowell Mason

***

Amen, brothers and sisters, amen!

About

Hah! Well, it’s only taken me three months to figure out how to use the “About” page. Yeah. I know. I am one of them there techno-geniusii. Do not be too intimidated by my computer savvy. I’m sure you’re cool in your own way, too.

So what is this blog about?

Perhaps I should do one of those official mission statement dealies:The mission of Humoristianity is to spread laughter and good will across our planet.

Here are the tenets to the one true fallacious faith -

1) You must be able to laugh at yourself.

2) You must be able to recognize how ludicrous your beliefs might appear to others.

3) You must want nothing but good for everyone, everywhere in the universe.

4) You must have a natural aversion to meetings, committees, and scheduled events (as we will be having none of those).

5) You must enjoy the humor of… (here we had some internal conflict within the faith - but if you’re a Jerry Lewis kind of guy, you might want to think about starting your own religion – although we wish you nothing but good).

_____

So that’s pretty much what we’re about here. Humor, my friends. Humor.

Wingoov is the author of *Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist* and co-author with her friends of *The Humoristian Chronicles: A Most Unusual Fellowship*

via About.

Contagious Good – A Call to Humoristians Everywhere!

“Floating with the popular current of mortal thought without questioning the reliability of its conclusions, we do what others do, believe what others believe, and say what others say…If only the people would believe that good is more contagious than evil…” – From the chapter titled “Contagion” in *Miscellaneous Writings* by Mary Baker Eddy

My dear Humoristians,

I ask you today to laugh out germs of joy, hope, confidence, and love upon your fellow man. Do not be frugal or sparing in your hardy guffaws or exuberant giggles – but spread the contagion of  joy upon everywho, everywhere, and everywhen.  Yes, I say, let your good-natured joie de vivre fill every dark nook and cranny of doubt, fear, anxiety, loneliness, regret, guilt, recrimination, anger, hate, and crankiness.  Rouse yourselves! (Cue in the music here – something rousing and inspiring – maybe that theme song from *Chariots of Fire*.) Arm yourselves with a joyful heart! Laugh…excuse me a moment…(Orchestra?  The theme song from *The Meaning of Life* was not exactly what I had in mind here…I mean…oh, never mind…I guess it’ll do…)

Laugh long and prosper!

Wingoov

Trumpeter Swans Bring Magic to Winter

Just as the world up here in the Pacific Northwest starts getting really cold and dark and kind of dreary, in fly the trumpeter swans – joyously (and loudly!) honking their arrival, filling our gray skies and muddy corn fields with graceful necks and white-winged beauty, and bringing magic to our Winter.

“The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here.” – Robert Green Ingersoll

The trumpeter swans are back! (I love these guys.)

I love these guys! - photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell

Butterfly in November…

"Life will find a way..." - Michael Chrichton

The Power in a Simple Photo…

I’m pretty sure the photo of the laughing Mongolian girl was taken as the little girl and her camel-friend watched me try to get on the back of another camel. Where to sit? In front of the hump or on top of it?…Nah, just kidding…I have never ridden on a camel in my entire life.

This little girl expresses pure joy, doesn’t she? She has it, right now. Note that there isn’t a Porsche or BMW in the background, that the horizon isn’t filled with five-star restaurants, supermarkets, department stores, or mansions. We see a little girl and a camel – both of ‘em laughing – and that simple scene has the power to make us smile.

Viva la laughter!

Karen

(Couldn’t find the name of the photographer who took this picture – but God bless him or her – he/she caaptured a wonderful moment, for sure!)