Friday 20 December 2013

"Caprice. Frolic. Joke. Jest. Dance." - Joan Lennon


Caprice. Frolic. Joke. Jest. Dance. This is the word cloud that takes me to what makes us human. The great German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said this: “. . . one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star”. It is the chaos in ourselves that is divine. We can be trained to do almost anything, harnessed to almost any purpose. But there remains a wayward spark whose unpredictability lies in the fact that it is pointless. That is humanity.

The quote is from a New Statesman article by Matthew Parris, titled What makes us human? Doing pointless things for fun. 

I agree.  (I love his cave painting story!)  And because there is a Shetland-shaped place in my heart, I give you this, as well, in confirmation.



Here's to your Christmas and all your new year being fully flavoured with caprice, frolic, jokes, jests, and dance!


Joan Lennon's website.
Joan Lennon's blog.


7 comments:

Penny Dolan said...

A good sentiment among the busyness of this time of year! Off to do my own pony dance this very minute.

Sue Purkiss said...

Love it! Really cheered me up - thanks, Joan!

Joan Lennon said...

Do you think we could get Penny to make a video of her pony dance? Now that would be cheering!

Linda Strachan said...

Excellent idea, Joan. We are waiting, Penny!

Lovely post. Amidst all the chaos and panic-driven Christmas rush it is important to remember to do something just for FUN!

Katherine Roberts said...

Thanks for reminding me of the dancing pony! I love that.

Sue Bursztynski said...

Adults need to be able to play, not just work and be serious. And it shouldn't take Christmas for them to remember this. ;-) Have a great festive season! :)

Miriam Halahmy said...

Wowser! That's put a big grin on my face this morning. Brilliant Joan, many thanks!