But maybe it's good to have one day a year where it is okay, even expected, to be a fool. To not take things so seriously. You thought something was true and you were wrong, but laugh about it, it's aight! You can't trust people, even friends and family, to be straight with you and not lie to your face for a laugh at your expense.... ain't life a hoot!
Life is absurd.
April Fools' Day is a good day to celebrate being silly and, if you can manage it, not giving a shit what people think. Kids are good at this, but at some point we learn to worry about being judged for not behaving "appropriately" i.e. like somber Adults. Eff that. Being an adult is overrated. One of the things I love about playing with my niece and nephew is doing silly shit and not caring because a kid is making me do it, that's how it works. If you don't make a fool of yourself in front of a baby that baby will be unimpressed. (And will miss out on working their face muscles trying to imitate you? That is a plausible theory, someone should look that up...) That baby wants you to be a fool and will reward you with a smile.
The interesting thing I learned from the internet today is that April 1 used to be when people celebrated the New Year. A possible origin of April Fools' Day is that when New Year's Day was changed to January 1, some people either didn't hear about the change (there was no internet back then) or refused to move their day of celebration, so they were made fun of. New Year's on April 1 is kind of great though (for the Northern hemisphere anyway): it's Spring! Things are new! Plants and animals that hibernated over winter are coming back to life! Gods are resurrected! Eggs and bunnies! The Chinese New Year also marks the beginning of Spring. What better time to celebrate newness than when things are new?
And since I brought up symbols (gods and eggs), let's look at the symbolism of the Fool. Or rather, let's watch Joseph Campbell talk about the Trickster god in Native American mythology who "represents the power of the dynamic of the total psyche to overthrow programs." The great thing about the Fool character/archetype (and of course I first learned this from Campbell's "The Power of Myth" special) is that he's "both a kind of devil and fool and the creator of the world" who "breaks through the notion of what a deity ought to be."
And of course, breaking through the notion of what a deity ought to be is important because our idea of God, and its many images and manifestations, is just a symbol, a mask of eternity. It is not eternity itself. If you forget that, the Trickster will fuck with you.
So, folks, it's okay to be a fool. God is a fool, and you are god too.
Happy New Year!
