The following excerpt is from the meditation “Thank God for Humor!” from Thurman’s Meditations of the Heart.
There is always in every human relationship and in every private life some place for humor, for the sparkle in the water of life. It is easy to understand the reason for much of the tension that engulfs us. Sometimes we take our own lives so seriously that there is scarcely room on the planet for any other life. There is a sense in which our own problems loom so large that they dominate our entire horizon, and all there is for us to think and feel is that which is central to our particular burdens.
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If this be our mood then there is no antidote quite like a central chuckle of the spirit. Humor may not be laughter, it may not even be a smile; it is primarily a point of view, an attitude toward experience – a tangent.
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True humor is a weapon, but it is used creatively when it is held firmly in the hands of a person who uses it against themselves and their own antics. All the gods of depression, gloom and melancholy must shriek with alarm when there rings down the corridor the merry music of the humorous spirit. It means that fear is in rout, that there is deep understanding of the process of life and an expansive faith which advises the spirit that, because life is its own restraint, life can be trusted.