By playing the clown and the fool, Taoist teachers refused to put themselves above other men. They encouraged a fellow-feeling of fools among the community of ordinary people. Nothing was too sacred to be laughed at.
They were wise fools whose grand folly was an acceptance of everything just as it was, celebrating man’s imperfections with laughter. In doing so, they encouraged the freedom for all of us to laugh at our follies.
An individual’s failing is painful, but the shared frailties of all men are ultimately comic. So it is that one stutterer, or wheelchair-bound amputee, or one addict alone is tragic, but together they can be free for a moment to laugh at their own situation. As Zen wisdom tells us, this laughter is itself a form of reverence. It is the laughter of acceptance, and appreciation, and wonder.
God grant me the laughter —AA slogan