I once heard about an old “rule” of comedy that to make a punch line funnier, add a word with a K in it. The same can be said for a hard C, but it apparently isn’t as funny to quote the rule that way. To make sure I remembered it correctly, I looked it up online and it’s true. Well, it’s true that the opinion exists out there. That doesn’t mean the letter K is statistically funnier than other consonants, envious though they may be. Personally, I think the letter Q is hilarious. But then, it has a “K” sound when you say it.
Another part of the online entry in which I read this was the opinion of Arthur Schopenhauer that humor is a “product of one’s expectations being violated.” That’s a very sobering thought at the moment. I heard it said in seminary that any time you think you know what’s going to happen, God laughs. And then I thought of the word “fecund.” And I laughed.
Fecund is a difficult word to say without at least a giggle. The accent is on the first syllable and rhymes with HECK-und. The meaning is no less entertaining: “Producing or capable of producing an abundance of offspring or new growth; fertile.” In other words, fecund is the equivalent of manure-like. But of course not just manure. Life. God’s got jokes.
Yet, I believe, should God exist, It is laughing with us, not at us. I believe it’s a conspiratorial kind of laughter between dear friends who understand why humor is the best way to deal with suffering that, ultimately, cannot be avoided, but with love can be more than endured, but grown from. We stand on highly fertile soil right now. You might say it’s hecka fecund.
When facing an adversary of either literal or metaphoric terms, we only have two choices most of the time: run or stand. It’s not to say that one is preferable to the other in any given circumstance. Sometimes running is the absolute best thing to do. Sometimes standing is the only choice we feel we have. There can be honor in both. These two broad categories of run and stand contain multiple layers of meaning, of course. But here they shall mean Progress and Stagnancy.
How do we make the best use of this fecund experience? Do we run or do we stand? Do we live in the present? Or do we remain stuck in the past/future when things were/will be back to “normal?” Are you counting the days until the pandemic is over, or are you living in the present moment?
Here’s the irony: Living in the present is progress. It is forward momentum. It is keeping up with the speed of the planet as it hurtles through the galaxy. Not seeking to remain behind where things used to be, when the ground wasn’t so busy moving beneath our feet all the time. Or at least before we started to notice it.
Some comfort might be had by trying to imagine the future benefit that will come from the present difficulty. Not necessarily imagining the contours and details of it. Just the idea of future benefit itself.
Don’t trouble yourself with attempting to determine the best route from point A to point B. Just decide how you want to feel, and be thankful for that future feeling right now. Imagine the lessons you will learn in the future occurring to you now in the present. Attempt to speed up the learning process during this time by leaning into it and assuming that those who choose now as the moment to empower themselves will be the best prepared for whatever future lies next.
That’s a lot to think about, I know. It’s like being asked to harvest a garden before you’ve planted it. It’s a challenge to learn now the things we will learn during our hardship before we even finished having it. But that process can be advanced considerably by knowing we are undergoing it and by reminding ourselves, consistently and constantly, that all shall be well.
It’s OK to begin planning the garden that will grow from this. It’s also OK that plans may change in the meantime. Or that new things may yet become possible to grow that you hadn’t yet considered before. Or that might not have even been possible before.
Consider your options in the present moment of this current new normal. The next normal isn’t here yet, and the old one will not come back. We are already permanently changed, and that change becomes more pronounced every day as we co-suffer through this single human experience together.
Make a point not to attempt to refit the square peg into a hole that is now rounded. It won’t fit anymore, and forcing it to do so will only cause you injury. Better still to find out the best things that grow from this type of fecundity.
That’s where the future lies and will be best realized if we attend to this present moment with all of our attention on this fecund, shifty ground beneath our feet.
You will get some on your shoes. Don’t worry about it. It’s all part of the process.
Wil Darcangelo, M.Div., is the minister at First Parish UU Church of Fitchburg and of First Church of Christ Unitarian in Lancaster. He is the producer of The UU Virtual Church of Fitchburg and Lancaster on YouTube and host of the Our Common Dharma podcast series. Email wildarcangelo@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @wildarcangelo. His blog, Hopeful Thinking, can be found at https://ift.tt/2J5igoD.
The Link LonkSeptember 12, 2020 at 05:00PM
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‘Fecund’ may sound funny, but it’s all about growth - Lowell Sun
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Funny
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