Thursday, October 9, 2008

Weltschmerz and The Power of Playfulness



After writing several vital yet dire health alerts here it was like drinking from a cold spring on a hot day to read, again, about the power of play and laughter. I am unashamedly mixing metaphors now: Dave Pollard is a breath of fresh air, especially when describing how Tom Robbins “was able to pull himself back from the brink of what he calls Weltschmerz.” That’s the ‘Sadness over the evils of the world…. The trick was to rediscover playfulness, or what the Tibetan Buddhists call Crazy Wisdom.’ Robbins says it is ‘the wisdom that evolves when one, while refusing to avert one's gaze from the sorrows and injustices of the world, insists on joy in spite of everything.’” Read Pollard’s great list of what’s keeping us from playing. Don't wait for Tina Fey to start laughing more.

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