Sneaker waves of sadness regularly overwhelm me nowadays. The world is such a mess, filled with struggle and misery, and yet, and yet, it’s so beautiful. What’s to be done with such a situation?
The brilliant writer and poet Wendell Berry has died. He spent his life writing from both ends of his pencil, invoking both the tragedy and the comedy of life. He was one of the living sages of our age, and now he’s gone. Gratefully, his words remain to guide us.
Any feeling individual confronts life’s dissonance, the back and forth of joy and despair and how they often come on the heels of each other. My two daughters turn 55 years old this year and will qualify for the Senior Discount at Sonoma Market, but one of them is recovering from a major stroke. Her right side currently lacks all sensation and her arm seems to have a mind of its own. “I hope it doesn’t attack me!” she said, laughing.
Life’s a comedy. Life’s a tragedy. This is why the drama of the performing arts is depicted as masks; the suspense comes from never knowing how the next act will end. Ancient Greek actors wore the masks so audience members far from the stage could understand their emotions. If only it was as easy for us now.
We all wear masks of one sort or another. Our smiling faces reassure, scowls give warning, tears bring sympathy. It’s said good liars don’t betray their feelings in their faces; we all lie in this way sometimes, but we can’t hide from ourselves. The truth is known to us no matter what masks we wear, even as we attempt to delude ourselves.
The Ancient Greeks were also masters of philosophy and engendered myriad schools of thought and behavior. The Stoic face was unperturbed while the Epicurean was joyful. Our masks help to define us and invoke reactions and responses from others wearing masks.
The four basic human emotions are mad, glad, sad, and scared; all other emotions are built upon and from them. The entire drama of human life, particularly glad and sad, but also mad and scared, underlie Hollywood and popular entertainment. Great actors are great liars, but their power comes from drawing upon the truths and experiences of their own lives, as must we all or risk being revealed as false.
It’s been said that the definition of comedy is tragedy revisited. Watching Oliver Hardy fall from a roof into a fountain due to Stan Laurel’s clumsiness is funny, but falling off a roof ourselves is anything but.
We’re actors in our own slapstick comedy, expecting one thing but getting another, sometimes tragic. That everyone we know and love will someday die is absolutely true; it doesn’t get more tragic than that. I’m not saying the prospect of death is funny, but did you ever see the character played by Jimmy Durante in Stanley Kramer’s movie “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” literally kick a bucket as he died?
Death is natural. It happens all the time every day, and it saddens us when it’s someone we know, like or love. But life is beautiful precisely because it never lasts. In a cosmic joke, no matter how we live, death is always the punchline.
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