How To Keep Laughing
Even Though You've Considered
All The Facts
by Richard Deats
"There are many times when it we didn't
laugh, we would be crying. Thank goodness for Richard Deats, who helps
to keep us sane by making us laugh and not take ourselves so seriously."
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Nobel Peace Laureate
"The thing about laughter is that it rinses
the acid out of our souls and gives us the energy we need to go on through
the dark days. This book makes that possible. Is there any greater gift?"
Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB
Author, A Passion for Life
"Richard Deats knows that while religious
faith is necessary for the ultimate incongruities of life, humor can handle
very nicely the immediate ones."
William Sloane Coffin
Senior Minister Emeritus
Riverside church
FROM THE INTRODUCTION
......Religion is serious but it is not joyless. The religious quest for meaning and fullfillment and the building of a just and decent society include the joyful celebration of life and the ability to laugh even in the midst of tragedy and suffering. Indeed, when one cannot see the humor in the face of life's foibles and paradoxes, one might easily give in to despair and bitterness. Laughter can keep you sane...A sense of humor softens the blows of life and makes them more endurable...Garrison Keillor says, "Humor is not a trick, not jokes. Humor is a presence in the world--like grace--and shines on everybody." This grace-full presence makes for a better world. Richard Pryor observed, "I am proud that, like Mark Twain, I have been able to use humor to lesson people's hatred."
RANDOM SELECTIONS
On my first trip to India i saw a woman in a beautiful native costume. "That's a lovely sarong," I said. "But it isn't a sarong," she said, "it's a sari." "Oh," I replied, "sari I was sarong."
A Basque general and his troops were trapped in a mountain pass and killed. the moral of the story is, "Dont put all your Basques in one exit."
Aristotle Onassis wanted to purchase a home in Hollywood. the realtor took him to various homes of the rich and famous. Onassis was photographed looking at the home of the movie actor, Buster Keaton. The Los Angeles Times' caption for the photo was, "Aristotle contemplating the home of Buster."
Caption of a photograph of Gorbachev holding a Kurdish refugee child: "Kurd- carrying Communist."
A sign on a two-story tailor shop in Hong Kong: "Foreign ladies have fits upstairs."
The cafeteria in the Istanbul airport has listed on its menu "terminal soup."
A BBC commentator called Israel "a mecca for tourists."
Two Englishmen meet. One says, "Terribly sorry to hear you buried your wife last week." The other replies, "Had to. Dead you know."
The comedian Dick Gregory fasted until the Vietnam was ended and when it was over he looked like a concentration camp victim. Someone asked him if there was another war would he fast again. "No way," he replied. "If there's another war, I'm going to McDonalds and eat until that war is over."
During the days of apartheid, Archbishop Tutu was walking past a construction site in Capetown. There was a temporary sidewalk only wide enough for one person to walk on it at a time. A white man at the other end of the sidewalk recognized the archbishop and said, "I don't give way to gorillas.:" Upon which Tutu stepped aside, made a low sweeping gesture and said, "Ah, yes, but i do."
Glenn Smiley tells of the minister who visited an elderly parishoner and asked her if she thought about the hereafter. "All the time," she said. :"I go into the kitchen and wonder, 'now what did I come in hereafter?'"
A Zen disciple goes up to a hotdog vendor in Central Park and says, "Make me one with everything."
The Russians send up five cows in a space ship. It is the herd shot round the world.
A cheese shop in Nazareth, Pennsylvania is named "Cheeses of Nazareth."
When Gandhi was asked what he thought of Western civilization, he replied, "I think it would be a good idea."
Texas populist Jim Hightower says that getting progressives together is like loading frogs into a wheelbarrow. And he adds, "The people are revolting."
Will Rogers said, "Calvin Coolidge didn't do nothin' but that's what we wanted done."
President Lyndon Johnson asked Baptist Bill Moyers to open the Cabinet meeting with prayer. As Moyers began praying, the President said, "Speak up, Bill, I can't hear you." "I wasn't speaking to you, Mr. President" said Moyers.
A. J. Liebling said, "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one."
Lily Tomlin observed that "no matter how cynical you get it's almost impossible to keep up." Which is why we heed Molly Ivins advice, "Have fun while fighting for freedom. For one thing, it may be the only fun you'll ever have."
How To Keep Laughing Even Though You've Considered All the Facts can be ordered from FOR, Box 271, Nyack, NY 10960 or bookstore@forusa.org. $9.50 plus $2.75 shipping. Check, Visa or MasterCard.