Here is a guy that acted like a fool for a living, yet he lived his life within earshot of the king. Gone are the days of the jester taking up his spot in the king's court, maybe society has forgotten all about the antics of the joker or maybe he just went underground. I think we like to pretend that he is gone accept for that one day during the month of April when we try to catch ourselves a fool. When I think about this tradition it seems an odd one, fun yes, but just a little peculiar. What gives?
When one can look at the jester as an archetype, that sometimes takes centre stage in the house of the psyche, the story takes a new turn. Now I wonder what the fool knows? What is the advantage of the wild card? Why did the joker get to bend the ear of kings? Most importantly, why may I wish to employ the fool from time to time?
Getting caught on April Fools day gave me a chance to wink at my fool, in fact I actually showed her some love this time around! At first I wanted to shove her back into her closet and pretend that she did not exist and then it happened, I saw her gift.
I read this article on social media about the sonification of boson particles in the CERN accelerator, it claimed that scientists recognized a few notes from Mozart's 5th symphony. My fool was totally excited and told me: 'I always knew Mozart was playing the music of the universe, lets share this so others may know too!' and so I did. Shortly after my morning coffee I realized that it was in fact April fools day and that I have been, my fool has been ousted. My first instinct was to delete that post and hide all evidence of its existence but then I remembered how excited she became and I paused. She flashed me a smile and I suddenly remembered that she is a part of me that I would much rather keep than discard. She is the part that wants to believe in miracles, she wants to hold out hope against all hope and sometimes she likes to try the impossible just to see what would happen. She does not care about reason and the right brain is her queendom. Suddenly I knew that deleting that post would be denying a very valuable part of my psyche. I left the post untouched in honour of my favourite fool.
Perhaps fools come out to play in April to remind us that they will not be shoved in closets indefinitely.
Show me something or someone you are willing to be a fool for and I will show you where your passion lies. Every time you are asked to think outside the box, remember that your fool never came with a box in the first place. Want to learn a new skill? Borrow the fools flexible mindset. If you would like to dance like no one is watching, befriend your inner fool, she has your back on this one. When you are stuck in a rut, remember that wild cards are in the game to change the rules.
I am not suggesting that you hand the jester the keys to your kingdom but do invite him into the king's court once in a while. Expect to laugh a little more, breathe a little easier, stretch a little further. Be prepared to dial up the fun, increase your creative flow and improve your resilience but most of all learn to love expecting the unexpected!