Can Life Just Give Me A Damn Break?
Imagine waking up in the morning wondering what you should do with your life, utterly frustrated, to the level that you hate your existence to the guts, you’re unproductive, static, dull and adding to all of that you’re so afraid because you’re thrown into the unknown, feeling unprotected and naked! You’re in a hurricane of chaos, confusion and uncertainty. Maybe you don’t need to imagine, maybe your life looks exactly like that at the moment. Maybe you’ve a project you’re stuck in that you need to finish, but it’s not going so well with you. Maybe you’re overwhelmed by the complexity of life and the day by day quests and duties, overwhelmed by the hardship of it that comes laying heavily on your shoulders like a gigantic solid rock. Maybe you feel like you need a rest but you can’t have it because life just can’t wait. You were excited at the beginning, full of energy, ready and willing to face all the suffering of life and its quests, but now you just want to jump from the top of the highest building around you. Why is that? How did you get there in the first place, I mean you were doing great at the beginning, what happened?
The Limitations of A Wonderful Mind
Human willpower is limited, it can get exhausted, our mental energy withdraws quickly, let alone the fact that the 1.5 kg of meat in our heads consumes 20% of our whole energy just to function properly! also in essence, we’re lazy creatures, we tend to always seek for shortcuts when we want to do anything, even thinking, an example of that is stereotyping, or in a more scientific name ‘the theory of resemblance’, to illustrate it perfectly, answer the following question:
An individual has been described by a neighbor as follows: “Ahmed is very shy and withdrawn, invariably helpful, but with little interest in people or in the world of reality. A meek and tidy soul, he has need for order and structure, and a passion for detail.” Is Ahmed more likely to be a writer or a farmer?
The resemblance of Ahmed’s personality as a stereotypical writer immediately strikes everyone, although there are way more farmers in Sudan than writers, so obviously he’s more likely to be a farmer than a writer, but our mind was too lazy to consider this statistical information, interesting ha? Anyways, back to our point, we’re limited and lazy, so we need to recharge and find a strong motive to keep doing the complex, harsh and demanding life tasks, if we don’t do that, we will fall heavily, we will become exposed, the chaos and horror of life will reveal itself and attack us mercilessly! So how shall we do that? How shall we recharge ourselves and our willpower? Let’s find out.
The Best medicine Ever
As I said, in order to keep up with life, and be guarded well from chaos, we need to recharge and have the right strong motive, now why not hitting two birds with one stone? Why not doing one thing that will get us both? Now what is that one thing? One word, Laughter! Yes, you read it right, laughing is the ultimate and prefect answer, why? Because for starters, laughing has a tremendously unbelievable physiological benefit to your mind that you could ever imagine! Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh. It lightens your burdens, inspires hope, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused and alert. It triggers endorphins, these chemicals promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain. It boosts immunity, lowers stress hormones and relaxes your muscles. Laughter is really the best and the most magical medicine!
Let The Truth Set You Free
Now, secondly, and more importantly than the physiological benefits is that seriously funny things, like REALLY funny things are anarchic and daring, and that leads us to the truth, actually the pursuit of truth is almost always aligned with humor. You can notice that on stand-up comedy shows, when the comedian addresses and straightforwardly insults the government, all speaking loudly about a socio-political or socio-economical situation, for example, Mustafa Jorry the Sudanese comedian, is always addressing the country’s circumstances, criticizing the government and speaking the truth out loud, using the weapon of laughter, and people are actually listening to him and he’s making a real change!.
Truth keeps hold meaning and purpose; truth answers the question of ‘Why?’, and there’s nothing stronger and more powerful motive than knowing your ‘why’, as Nietzsche once said “He Whose life has Why can almost bear any How”. So, in this hard life and this utterly miserable country, don’t let go of hope, don’t give up your dreams, don’t let the demons of chaos to swallow you, guard yourself with laughter, recharge yourself with laughter and seek the truth with laughter. Last but not least, always remember:
“He Whose life has Why can almost bear any How”.
Bonus
Here’s one of the oldest and most legendary stand-up comedy shows by Dave Chappelle, The Reason Why Terrorists Won't take Black People As Hostages
Another one by Trevor Noah, It Makes No Sense
And of course the Sudanese legendary comedian Mohammed Musa