Lancaster High School - Mirage Yearbook (Lancaster, OH)

Page 22 text:

16 MIRAGE | HUMOR FOR EVERY DAY | | By J. F. HAWK. I „ , 5 “There are dimples enough in the cheeks of laughter to catch and hold and glorify all the tears of grief.” s y EVERAL humorous instances in chapel during the past t B) year have suggested that I could, with profit, use the subject of Humor and show its great value in our every day activities. Therefore I will take as the text the only two passages in the Bible that can by any strength of the immagination be con- sidered humorous: II Chronicles, 16th chapter and 12th verse, and this passage from Job: “And Job cursed—the day he was born.” We are familiar with the Harvard boy, 11 years of age, who is delivering lectures on abstract subjects to his professors, but outside of the incident cited we have never heard of profane language being used on one’s first birthday. Those are both examples of unconscious humor. You remember when our worthy principal announced the examinations—the time, place, etc., then said: “We’ll sing page 229.” With heavy hearts we turned to the number and were surprised to find these words: “Abide with me...........when other helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless, Lord abide with me.” That bit of unconscious humor helped to take the raw edge off the impending crisis and sent us all to work with joyful hearts. The following exposition brings out most clearly the point I wish to make: Humanity looping the loop as it slips on the banana peel of chance is the cause of that inextinguishable laughter that rever- berates from Mt. Olympus to Broadway and from the White House to the humblest home. Humor is the sauce that gives life its flavor. It is mirth that keeps us sane. The tragic is ridiculious because it has no sense of proportion. The tragic view measures man against man; the comic measures man against the universe. The one records the collisions of personality: the other records the impact of the mischievious molecule against the irrevocable. The tragic view is defective because it takes itself too seriously and bombards time and eternity with its whimperings.