22. Laughing With - (Regina Spektor)

"No one's laughing at God in a hospital / No one laughs at God in a war."

I don't think one has to be a particularly religious person to agree that if -- in fact, there *is* a God -- then The Almighty probably has a funny sense of humor. After all, this world is full of all sorts of crazy stuff that just doesn't quite make any logical sense -- almost to the point where it seems, at times, that certain things have been specifically designed for the sole purpose of making people laugh.

Take, for example...

Exibit A: The Duck-Billed Platypus
But when we're not chuckling from the sidelines at waddling punchlines, humans tend to do a whole lot of laughing at other things, too. Stuff like random coincidences, happenstance meetings, other people's misfortunes (e.g. "fat man fall down go boom"), and the rest of the crazy curveballs that life tends to throw our way at any given time.

And every now and again? We can't help but find ourselves laughing at God Himself ("Herself?" "Itself?") -- which is precisely where Regina Spektor's song picks up. I mean seriously -- how can you *not* laugh at God from time to time, especially in those moments where life makes virtually ZERO sence and yet God is (as she says):

"Presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini /
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus"

After all: when what we see unfolding in front of us is just so silly and senseless at times, it can seem kind of far-fetched to surrender to the notion of some bigger, broader, higher organizing power who's supposedly floating out there above the clouds and making sense of this crazy mess that we call life.

Voltaire would agree:


"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him."

Long story short: life is silly, and we don't always do so great a job of appreciating the bigger picture. To that end (so says Voltaire), we can't help but think that there's simply GOT to be something larger than ourselves watching over this whole crazy charade in order to keep things running as they should. Otherwise, what meaning could our lives possibly have?

As far as Regina Spektor is concerned -- not much.

With this in mind, Spektor notes how it's mighty suspicious that all of this laughing at God nonsense seems to screech to a halt whenever something legitimately bad seems to be lurking just around the corner. And for all of our big, blustery cracks at The Big Man's expense -- the jokes do tend to fall off in short order when things get serious.

In a hospital...

In a war...

When the doctor calls after some routine tests...


Dr. Nick: Hi, everybody!
Well ok, maybe we're still laughing when the doctor calls... but only if it's Doctor Nick.

And even then, we're probably just doing like Regina Spektor sings and "laughing with God" -- not at Him.

(Because let's face it, even God would agree that Dr. Nick is pretty freakin' funny).