Sunday, April 1, 2012

April Fool's Day Foolishness



April Fool’s Day and I wonder if I am the fool this year, taking on a blog challenge when sporadic entries represent the sum total of my blog’s history.  The challenge? To post a blog a day for one month (taking only 4 days off) and use the alphabet as my guide for each day’s focus. From A to Z, each letter of the alphabet, what do you mean to me?

My non-blog writing involves the “Art of being Alive” as I explore the underbelly of ordinary in search of its hidden essence. Some days that means a poem or three dances on my screen. Other days might lead to tales of mystery, humor or relationship.

Writing about real life through unusual lenses fascinates me and that will hopefully come out in the posts I generate for this month’s blogging challenge, a mostly improvised serenade danced along a path through the Alphabet.

Take today (please do!). I’ve rarely looked forward to the first day of April, couched too frequently in the Angst of humiliation. I always tried to be the first with the “joke” of the day, throw others off their scheming plans to catch me off-guard. “See,” I would try to explain. “I know what day today is, so don’t play your tricks on me.”

I grew up with an older brother in a family that found embarrassing jokes outrageously funny. Of course, that meant I married a man who enjoyed the same cruel (in my mind) delight in demeaning humor. One outcome of all those fooled and foolish years became my attempts at training my children to ignore the day, or at least stay on the sweet side of fool’s day tricks. Though I achieved some success in this effort, I remained in the minority, my reluctance to engage in ANY type of joking on April First seen as symbolic of my status as an “old fuddy-duddy.”

Let me quickly add, however, that I’ve met many people over the years that enjoy a good joke, a trick of the eye, a sleight of hand that triggers mild embarrassment but remains gentle. Humor – ah, perhaps a good topic for day number eight!

Was today’s blog a joke? No way. Or was it? And how will you decide?
Happy (?) April Fool’s Day.

A-mazing APRIL  (an acrostic poem)

Antecedent extraordinaire
Pushes winter’s final
Remnants away,
Induction ceremonies set
Let spring’s bouquets display

14 comments:

  1. "a mostly improvised serenade danced along a path through the Alphabet."

    :). Good luck with the challenge!

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  2. Love it, Judy. Seems like you and I have a similar goal with our writing, and I love how you phrased it: "explore the underbelly of ordinary to discover its hidden essence". Yes, I too believe that "ordinary" is only the flip side of extraordinary. And humor is on my list of potential topics for #8, too :D My father was a practical joker and looooved to make fun of people (not in a nice way). My mother hated it, but (for really complex reasons that you and I can get into over a cup of coffee someday) I learned to like it, even love it. Now I live with a sensitive man who doesn't appreciate my twisted sense of humor, and I'm doing my best to tone it down to avoid hurting him or making him uncomfortable in any way. Thanks for the insight :)

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    1. Thanks so much for your thoughts -- for sure we need to hook up over "H" ! I think we'd have a wonderful exchange over coffee ... :)

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  3. I love to joke and make others smile. My theme for the challenge is nonsense. Thoghts just passing through my mind. Nothing from my darker side.

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    1. Enjoying hearing from others - glad you stopped by -- I hope to bring a few smiles to people's lives this month

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  4. Ah, you have a soul sister right here. I've always detested April Fool's day and do my utmost to avoid it. I can appreciate the mythic need for it and so on and so forth, but I still hate it. Looking forward to reading the rest of your challenge entries :)

    Amanda
    http://dramadiceanddamsons.blogspot.co.uk/

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    1. Thanks, Amanda --- hope you can find space to stop back later -- there are so many blogs to view.....

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  5. April Fools Day is only fun if the jokes are funny to the person the joke is on. When I do them I consider the person I'm doing them to. They usually are planning something worse!

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    1. Sounds like you have lots of joke experience -- Despite all my trepidation, the writing led me to pull a "joke" this morning.... "Riley, there's a purple cat behind you!" Of course, being only 4, she looked and didn't "get" the joke, but innocent jokes like that, catching someone sweetly off-guard, can be fun when followed by a hug!

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  6. Haha! I love a good joke--especially a good scare. This was a fun post and I loved your poem.

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    1. Thanks, Julie, for stopping by and for your comments -- happy writing!

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  7. You didn't miss much in the joke realm -- thanks for stopping by

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  8. I'm right with you on the avoiding pranks. Lucky for me my dad is forgetful and my mom's "pranks" are never believable.

    Good luck with your AtoZs!

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