Coffee Times Challenge #6

Do You Want or Need More Light and Laughter in your Life? Or at Least More Alliteration?

Why YOU should subscribe to my Substack Newsletter, Sacred Foolishness

For the simple reason that it’s fun.

It’s also fool, I mean full, of foolishness. What do you expect from a newsletter called Sacred Foolishness?

But wait! Doesn’t that sound like an oxymoron? If something’s so sacred, how can it be foolish at the same time?

Well, there’s an archetype known in parts hither and yon as The Sacred Fool. She–I’ve determined she’s a she for reasons known only to me–she has a long proud history of being uniquely positioned to speak truth to power.

See, in the days of yore, before you were born, when Kings and Queens ruled the lands, every court had its jester or fool as well as lords and ladies, dukes and duchesses, and the whole nine yards.

But only the fool could disagree with the King and live to tell. If a Duke or Lord so much as suggested that a contemplated action, maybe an invasion into a neighboring kingdom to steal horses–which is why it’s called neigh-boring — was unwise, they could lose their head.

I mean that literally.

As in off with theirs. Put your sweet keppe on this here chopping block and let Mr. Axe give you a massage. That kind of losing their head.

But for some reason, the fool had the sire’s attention and, perhaps speaking in riddles and jokes and parables, could get the point across. Ix-nay on the vasion-inay. They had their own private language even if it wasn’t Pig Latin. But how do we know it wasn’t?

Those fools were no fools, right?

They had to be smart to be so trustworthy. And to proffer such sage advice. That’s a sacred duty if ever there was one.

Fortunately, my sacred foolishness doesn’t have such high stakes, though you might laugh your fool head off metaphorically.

Because mine’s all about play and laughter, clowning, and Commedia.

As in Commedia dell’arte. You know that bawdy low-brow physical theater that developed during the Italian Renaissance as comic relief from the really serious stuffy boring intellectual plays?

It caught on. It spread around the world and gave birth to such bouncy offspring as Punch and Judy, the Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplain, Lucille Ball, and Monty Python. Physical comedy. Where the bawdy body rules over the mind.

Which is why I love it.

A refreshing change of pace from my heady writing and blogging. Sitting all day at the computer.

I toss aside my chair to play Zanni.

My favorite of the Commedia Parthenon–a clueless country bumpkin, who works hard, plays hard, eats hard, and farts hard. He’d do something else hard if he had the opportunity, but mostly his romantic overtures are met with guffaws of rejection.

Sending in the Clowns…

Sacred Foolishness includes my adventures in clowning. Not cloning, mind you, clowning.

In addition to Zanni, who after all is a clown or at least a buffoon, I share about social clowning on Zoom and my carefully crafted clown persona, Duddles.

Duddles emerged in a somatic clown workshop. Somatic means of the body, bawdy and otherwise. I discovered her by walking and noticing. When I exaggerated my unique gait and movements such as hunched shoulders and splayed out feet, Duddles was born.

Clearly a sad clown, but she’s also possessed by outbursts of curious joy. That naive sense of wonder at the ordinary is so fun to play.

A tad bit more about the archetypal Sacred Fool…

My Sacred Rebels Oracle Deck has a beautiful card showing the Sacred Fool. Created by Alana Fairchild, with artwork by Autumn Skye Morrison, you know there’s a card for the Sacred Fool. And this is what she says:

“The fool is a great rebel, able to thwart convention and tell the truth without restraint. Your heart is a wonderful, powerful, sacred fool!…. It lives according to an inner wisdom that cannot be dictated to or controlled by anything! It loves, it lives and it is what it is!

[Be] inspired, alive and passionate for what you can offer to the world. [She] says to you, ‘Don’t try to be appropriate, don’t try to be socially acceptable and worry about what others may think about what you are doing — just be. If you want to wear a mad hat whilst doing so, fine.’

This message is followed by Alana’s interpretation, which reads in part:

The ultimate freedom is found in unabashed self-expression and this message is an invitation to be the most authentic version of you that you have ever dared to experience…It means stepping into your full power and shining your light on the world.

It means finding your inner badass rebel and letting him or her (or whatever feels right to you) out to run wild and free. Yes, you are going to piss some people off!…Do it anyway. It is the only way.

Find your tribe. Surround yourself with loving, like-minded, and supportive people who ‘get’ you.

This is why you should or might want to subscribe to Sacred Foolishness. If this resonates for you, we just might be members of the same tribe.

It’s a mad, mad, mad world out there. Just like it’s a mad, mad, mad world in here. But if there’s a similar method and/or quirkiness in our madness, maybe we should connect.

You can do that by clicking here: Welcome to Sacred Foolishness.

Thank you so much. You won’t be sorry. You might be perplexed, disgusted, or delighted. But you won’t’ be sorry!

It’s another Coffee Times Challenge so I get to tag my fav fellow writers: Debbie Walker Meg Stewart Margie Pearl Cindy Heath Shaunta Grimes Adrienne Grimes Katie Michaelson Marla Bishop Filza Chaudhry Bebe Nicholson Sharon Johnson Sally Gallagher David Perlmutter Spyder Diana C. Alison Acheson Carol Lennox AC Troi Rose CG Aikya Param James Knight Karen Schwartz Marcus aka Gregory Maidman Lee-Anne Hancock

I also want to honor the judges of this challenge: Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Dr. Preeti Singh, Liberty Forrest, Author, and Yana Bostongirl.

Thank you, Yana, for creating Coffee Times Challenge #6!

Marilyn Flower’s the author of Creative Blogging: Ninja Writers Guide to Character Development and Bucket Listers, Get Your Brave On. Clowning and improvisation strengthen her resolve during these crazy times. Follow her Sacred Foolishness and Stay in touch!