In this month's newsletter we meet the trickster.  The trickster, a minor but relevant character archetype, lends comic relief to the adventure and gives the hero (and the audience) the chance to laugh at our humanity.  The trickster reminds us that we sometimes take life and ourselves too seriously.  The trickster can be the side-kick with a satirical view of the world, the best girlfriend who can laugh at romantic foibles, or even a trickster shadow who will not take the Hero seriously.   Sometimes, the character manifests as a Trickster Hero who remains unchanged as he devilishly affects the society around him (i.e. Buggs Bunny or Axel Foley).

Our own trickster element often shows up when we are in a good or devilish mood with our loved ones, or when everything seems so serious and awful in our lives that we suddenly see the ridiculousness of our situations.  If you think back over your life, I bet you can remember a time when a moment of  incredible embarrassment and humor was born out of an over abundance of self concern, fear, or neverousness over "getting it right."  I am reminded of a lunch date I had a couple of years ago.  I was so concerned about paying attention to my date's conversation and my attractiveness that my drinking straw ended up my nose, rather than my mouth, when I went to take a sip of soda.  The potentially mortifying situation ended up in a good guffaw from the both of us and increased the intimacy of our relationship.   There is no doubt about it, laughter heals us.