One pathway to gathering wisdom for me has been humor. Humor breaks up the mind’s crystallizations and renders it flexible and innocent again. Having my own inner group of comedians to help me keep it light has served me well. Various Native American tribes have a clown or trickster who helps them laugh at themselves and keep it light. One summer I took a girl friend to a Pueblo tribal dance near Albuquerque, New Mexico. We arrived mid-day just as the dancers were filing out from the center of the village to their underground kiva, a ceremonial chamber, for a rest break and something to eat. Two heyoka or clowns were standing in the middle of the plaza, dressed in clearly recognizable costumes of sash-tied skirt, black and white stripes painted over their entire bodies and crowned with a headdress looking like two drumsticks sticking out of the top of their heads. It is the clown’s duty to entertain the crowd until the dancers return to the main plaza after their rest in the kiva.
A fact not always known by non-Indians attending a Native American dance on a reservation is that the clown’s job is not only to be a mischief maker but that they can do pretty much anything they want to do since there are no rules preventing them. They love to joke, tease and otherwise embarrass the heck out of whomever they choose; and almost always the joking and teasing is sexual in nature. Clowns used to wear enormous dildos while performing their duties during dances and other ceremonies. All that ended, however, when various government officials, anthropologists and church missionaries began coming to the Pueblos at the beginning of the twentieth century and put a stop to what they declared was “indecent behavior.”
From the moment my friend and I walked into the center of the plaza, the clowns began swarming all over us! We kept trying to lose ourselves by moving behind other people in the crowd, but the clowns kept pursuing us and finally drug us by the arm into the center of the plaza with them. It was obvious we were going to be part of the entertainment whether we liked it or not! The clowns found two beach chairs, made funnier by the fact that we were both living on Maui at the time. They motioned for us to sit down in the chairs and started dancing around us, making gyrating motions with their pelvises. They played with my friend’s long red hair and soon the crowd was roaring with delight. Two white ladies! What could be better! Then the clowns brought us each a can of coke to drink, followed by more dancing and gyrating pelvises. We sipped a little of the coke, not sure what else to do. I whispered to my friend that we really couldn’t get up and leave until the clowns “released” us. She was taking it all in stride, however, and soon we were both laughing and enjoying the routine as much as the crowd.
When the dancers emerged from the kiva to dance another round, the clowns came and stood beside us, helping us up from the beach chairs and making a low bow to each of us. They and we melted back into the crowd, none the worse for the experience. In fact, better for the experience because it had given us an intimate and playful opportunity to immerse ourselves in a world belonging to another culture so unlike our own. It is the fool in western culture that most resembles the clown; however, can any westerner imagine a clown, or a fool, poking fun during a Sunday church service towards anything, much less two women visitors?
I highly recommend interviewing and hiring your own team of inner comedians. Bet on the funny gals and guys to help keep it light!