Hmm, The Fool – innocent, naïve, fun-loving and always willing to take a chance. Hope springs eternal for The Fool because she (or he) always believes that something will prevent her from getting hurt as she walks off that rooftop (or cliff). She may be scattered and disorganized but that’s because she doesn’t worry about the small stuff. This is certainly something I’ve been experiencing lately – a sense of scatteredness and disorganization, but without the youthful exuberance and confidence. One of the aspects I often associate with The Fool is questioning things. I often think of children who respond to adult rules and regulations with “why?” And when we have to explain why to a child we are often at a loss because in reality, our rules don’t make sense. We may have all agreed to abide by them but that doesn’t mean they make any sense, simply that they’ve become social norms.

They often don’t make sense from a practical perspective or in the day to day life we live. Look at the whole PC movement – why can’t we say certain things? I’m not talking about “fighting words” – they occupy a different plane. But we have reached a point as a society that every little word that is said becomes a potential issue or lawsuit. I read a brief editorial in the NYC Daily News last week about a new policy in the UK. If a child (presumably white) in nursery school refuses to eat ethnic food like curry or makes a “Yuk” reaction, the nursery school must report the child for re-education because they are obviously prejudiced against other ethnicities. Now I have no idea what brain trust came up with this idea but give me a break. That sounds like 1984 where we all have to believe one way and follow the same path. That scares the hell out of me.

But there is another side to The Fool – the historical jester or holy fool. This is someone not bound by society’s rules to be polite or politically correct. This is the person who has been sanctioned by society to poke fun at itself – even kings were not exempt from the mockery of the court jester or fool. In today’s society this role is often filled by comedians who point out the ridiculousness of modern society by using humor. They force us to face facts that we might prefer to avoid.

There is also a school of thought in psychology that people who are mentally ill are actually dealing with modern society in a healthy manner. This school believes that modern society is so detrimental to the mental health of humans that a complete break from it is the only healthy response. And sometimes I think that makes perfect sense. Maybe the people who live in their own worlds are the only truly healthy ones in this modern society. Maybe allowing ourselves to become “slaves” to our jobs, to put work before family and to always be running in place just to keep up is what’s crazy. We convince ourselves that working more hours is better because we can provide for our families. But do we? It seems like all we do is increase our debt and become strangers to our children. I work with children and it frightens me to see how unsupervised and disconnected so many teenagers are today. They are not “bad” just not receiving the guidance and supervision they need. And how can that happen when parents are often working at least 7-8 hour days with an additional 2 hours of commute time. I realize how lucky I was. My family had no money but my mother always worked a block or two from our apartment. So we could always find her if we needed her and we always kept her apprised of our whereabouts. That is often missing from today’s world even with cell phones and other technological advances.

The Fool reminds me that I need to take a different look at some of my patterns, behaviors and values. Are they really important to me or am I just buying into what society keep telling me I need? I admit that I work because I enjoy working but if I had to scale down I could. Right now I am able to balance my work and my life. I get to spend time with my hubby, my friends and on my interests. And eventually I know I will make a leap of faith and make some major transformations in my life. For right now I think I just need to take some time each day to embrace my inner Fool.