Off the Rails – The Fool’s Favour

     This one will likely be strange, or confusing, or questionable. Likely all three, plus some imaginary numbers that will really get you frowning at the screen like, “what is wrong with this guy? I knew he’d lost his marbles, but this is just…”

     Welcome to a true derailed Train of Thought. I have no idea what I am going to write about in the next sentence, nor the one after that. And I’ve already forgotten what I wrote in the previous paragraph.

     The only challenge will be coming up with a title that somehow gels this witch’s brew together into an illusory narrative that will (stop the clock! He just deleted a sentence!)

     Yep. I cheated. Now I look the fool, don’t I? There’s a thing we can linger on. I am a fool. I am often wrong about something I was certain I was right about; I become as witless when I talk to strangers as a canary with a single word in its vocabulary (“Hello! Hello! Hello?”); I find myself nodding in conversations when I have missed a few crucial words, and now wonder what I am agreeing to.

     I am a fool, and I would have it no other way.

     You see, a fool is a powerful thing to be. In many games, it is the wild card, capable of changing form to suit the player’s best advantage. It is the court jester, able to make jokes to those of much higher status without reprimand (not literally, but metaphorically, shall we say.) And, yes, you can thank me for not writing the obvious pun present in the first sentence of this paragraph.

     And now you can curse me for making you see it all on your own. You cannot unsee it now.

     I think we shouldn’t be afraid to put on a jester’s hat and act a fool. It is an ego cleanser – and ego is not a thing you want to get infected.

     Here’s a thought. All the photos we put up on social media platforms. Interesting that the vast majority of them are, if not pristine, then certainly favourable. And when a particularly embarrassing photo makes its way up – almost always due to some picture taken of you at a party when you were… in a shifted state of consciousness – it is met, initially, with a defensive posture.

     But, if you’re already a fool, you really don’t care about such things.

     I mean. You know how many pants I’ve ripped at parties? A lot. It’s somehow connected to my super power, and I just have to work out how to turn it to my advantage.

     Now, I know. Reputation is a thing. One cannot just be seen acting without shame, and expect to keep the respect of one’s peers. A teacher cannot be seen drunk by their students. I get that there are lines and grey areas to how a society works, and that the embarrassment of looking like a fool has evolutionary roots. (literally everything about us has to).

     But I think we go too far in the other direction. And let me define that being shameless is a different discussion to be had – nuanced as all things inevitably are. I’m talking about type of stuff where you are the one embarrassing yourself, the stuff where the only thing really at stake is your own pride.

     There is a reason why humility is a virtue. And it has nothing to do with any religious texts or divine something-a-rathers. Humility is so important, that I am going to have to cram that word back into the can and hope the worms don’t escape out the cracks. We’ll revisit that in depth at a later pint. At a later point, rather. With a pint.

     And for the (not so) cheap price of a dozen pints and a nasty hangover, you can have the full “fool” experience for an entire evening with your friends.

     Nope. I’m not talking about the excuse of alcohol to do foolish things. That is easy, and can become a big problem.

     I’m talking about a fully conscious embracing of the silliness, of the madness, of the absurdity of life.

     Oh, and to revisit the photo thing. Have you noticed that, after the initial reaction of shock, the good stuff starts to happen? We make fun of ourselves (because, there’s not really any other move to make). But then other’s admit to similar experiences, and we all make fun of each other. And those photos become the most memorable ones, the ones we are most fond of, the ones that hold real meaning and memory.

     And then, we find we are closer with those around us, because we are grounded together on the creaky floorboards of the fool’s stage.

     I could talk about this for a lot longer. But my cousin is here, and we are about to watch the greatest show of all time come to its conclusion.

     I told you this piece of writing would be loose.

     Final thoughts?

     The fool is incapable of taking life too seriously. The fool can laugh at themselves, and in doing so, can laugh in spite of themselves.

     I hope to be a better fool tomorrow than I am today.