Send In The Clowns! by Chef JeM Blog entry

Blog: Son of Truth of Self
by Chef JeM

Send In The Clowns!

Chef Jem expresses some validation for his inner clown that he received in reading from a new site and shares a vision of the clown as healer.

Date: 8/14/2010 5:05:45 AM ( 14 y ) ... viewed 2065 times

I so like this:
"In a naturally-functioning human society, the class clown is the king"
http://mail.devmatrix.org/laura/htdocs/

I began elementary public school with some kind of natural gift whereby what I said was funny to the other children. I know that to be the truth because I can remember the laughter of what seemed like the entire class! And that "gift" was so enjoyable (in my own estimation). However, I am very sorry that the teacher did not see it in the same way! I was promptly put through a process of being escorted out of the classroom into the principal's office and escorted home from school by my mother! That essentially "cured" me from exercising my gift. Fortunately the punishment did not destroy the gift ... or me! Years later I was "crowned" with one of my favorite clown titles of "privileged character" by my fifth grade teacher although that unceremonious event did not necessarily inspire the whole class to laughter (as I believe happened in my original first grade class). In high school the latent powers of class clowning continued but in more subtle ways as I developed stealth clowning! But eventually it seems that the forces of domestication held sway over the playful muses of gaiety, hilarity, foolery and the like. Eventually I forgot that I once was able to find great humor in and / or regardless of the dumbing-down process of higher education!

As a full grown (maybe even middle-aged) adult I read a book on the ability of perceive the humorous in life and I think that may have planted a new seed (or bean) for my eventual recovery of levity and the lighter side of life. Then recently I was asking myself if I can write humor. And within a matter of days I became aware of thoughts, ideas, perspectives that at least in those moments I found humorous. Some of these I even wrote down in case I wanted to develop them.

However, in recollecting my first emergence as the class clown I recall that there was something really magical about expressing the inspiration, the imagination live that possibly may never happen again in my life. I think writing is a wonderful art, craft, discipline, training, etc. that (just the other night) I have expressed appreciation for (with a friend who is considering getting training as a screen writer). But living that gift right in the moments of real life is still the best act in my estimate.

It seems that in a large part we have become so terribly domesticated! I saw the very beginning of that domestication process in school and that was the very thing that "invited" the class clown to enter! The truth is we are not "in a naturally-functioning human society". We have a manufactured society that runs on programs both throughout the institutions of society and within the individuals. The class clown is not the king, the prince or even "the duke of prunes"! He might be close to being considered as a terrorist. If he gets out of line then maybe "Homeland Security" will have it's way! I wish this were a laughing matter! Because it seems to me that these "characters" do not get much of a chance to "get out of line" since we now have a wide spectrum of official social disorders complete with a matching diagnosis plus all the medical doctors needed to dispense not only the diagnosis but the drug/s that will correct the defect in behavior! Ding Dong the clown is dead (or deadened). We need a class clown revival! And I just might stir one up!

Update: Just found a note that I made (possibly about two years ago) that says:
"Miracles of Joy - Clown Troupe Band"
All Organic, including organic bubbles, organic "mists" -
(especially important for children, everyone who is chemically sensitive and for ecological purposes)
All Acoustic!

The Clown Troupe would be ambassadors for the "Joyful Miracles Charitable Foundation for Children" with a primary purpose of creating miracles of joy in the lives of children while they are being hospitalized.

The clowns do this with music therapy that engages the children, story-telling that invites the child's participation in ways that can bring healing insight and guided imagery that pertains to the biological condition of the child.

Actually I just now came up with this last paragraph and I can see how I have been influenced in my thinking from learning some German New Medicine over the past year! That reminds me about a quote of Dr. Hammer that I want to get that I believe speaks to what I wrote for supporting children in their healing process.

Update: Just found out that my Mayan calendar sun sign is the monkey who "craves attention" and may "over-act or play the fool to get the spotlight". At home, after the time that I was the class clown in my first grade class, I had been sucking on a tiny cup and making it grip onto my lips without me touching it and as a result my lips swelled to so noticeably that my sister said I had "monkey lips"! The next day in school we had class pictures!