it's so fine, its sunshine.

so, today was my first day of clowning. o, wait. i didn't tell you yet-i am a clown's apprentice. you see, this woman named lulu rednose is teaching me the art of therapeutic clowning. the thing that separates therapeutic clowning from ordinary clowning is that you're not trying to be funny, you're trying to be friendly. that is, the idea is to interact with someone and make them forget their problems for a moment, make them think that there is some good in the world, there are kind, loving people.
so, i did it. and it was great.
i noticed that even though i pretend not to be, i am a very serious person. i have everything calculated and theorized, which doesn't really do much except make me less confused. but the thing about clowning is that it is so selfless; you're just being nice to people in a silly sort of way. and that's really the way people should interact-just nice. i know that sounds stupid and unoriginal, but it's true.
i always talk about this idea of progress versus non-progress; whether life was fine the way it was or whether we should continue to move toward new futures. well, my decision is this: as far as technology goes, we are FINE. we do NOT need to progress any further, except to fix the things we have that are harmful and broken. however, in terms of our human interactions, we are extremely primitive. we have not yet learn to let go of the natural, untrusting aggression and sneakiness that was necessary back when we were wrestling with tigers. aggression is no longer something we need, except to combat other people's unneeded aggression. what we need right now, as i have said many times before and will say many times again, is love.