In the Face of Fear: On Laughing All the Way Toward Wisdom

In today's click-happy world, humour all too often strikes at the heart of the other. It's about laughing at another's expense, guffawing in superiority, and generally casting our eye on other people's failings. Walter G. Moss reminds us that this social habit is a long way from what humour once was - a method to maintain perspective, and to look at the world in such a way that we can overcome whatever hits us. Life can be funny - not just other people's lives, but our own lives. Moss says this very ability is a sign of both maturity and of wisdom. When we laugh at ourselves, all the world can laugh with us.
Take a moment and picture South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama together. There's a good chance the image that comes to mind is one where they're both smiling, if not outright laughing. These two stalwart individuals of faith have faced more fear than many humans will ever know, and yet somehow they have arrived at a place where their automatic response is to emit a sound that lightens both heart and mind - laughter. This, says author Walter G. Moss, is the pure product of applied wisdom. With laughter as his sextant, Walter charts a course to wisdom using examples from clerics and philosophers, historical figures, and international literary giants. In many cases, it was the horrific face of war itself that led writers such as Anton Chekhov and politicians such as Abraham Lincoln to loosen their earth-bound ties, and lighten their outlook - taking them sometimes to the far shores of absurdity. Profound, yet lighthearted, with an eclectic devotional edge that will keep you off guard, In the Face of Fear emboldens us to shrug off our self-imposed seriousness in favour a light touch. Doing so, could do more to cast light on what's possible than stumbling around in the dark.