Article March 19, 1977 Issue

Humor Helps

STEPHEN T. CARLSON

If mortal existence can be likened to a dream—and Christian Science does so liken it—then we're wise to keep our sense of humor. Certainly there's nothing amusing about the suffering that seems to go on in this dream. But the fact still remains that mortal, material existence is a dream, and to be overanxious about it might result in deepening the mistaken belief that nothing is something—that an illusion, an upside-down view of creation, has power, life, and intelligence.

The only true creation is the spiritual and perfect and entirely good one; the one that God sees and knows and created as the expression of His infinite being; the one that man—our true identity —sees as God's reflection. So we do have something to laugh about. We have something to be overjoyed about, no matter what straits we may be in. We can laugh because reality isn't upside-down and neither are we. "I like to have my students laugh," Mrs. Eddy is recorded as saying. "A good laugh often breaks mesmerism."^{We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, First Series (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1943), p. 82;}

Humor can alert us not to take material selfhood too seriously. Why do we take offense? Because we're thinking of ourselves as finite personalities, vulnerable to criticism and weakness. But we're really complete, unflawed spiritual ideas, and because we are we can afford to laugh at the mortal misconception now and then. A friend's amusing remark, a slice of life from a play or book or movie, a little vignette from everyday experience, often point up the absurdity of the belief that each one possesses a private, inflatable or deflatable ego. It can prompt us to think of the one divine Ego and to delight in man's true selfhood, infinitely beautiful.

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