In Nov of 2022, I travelled down the Nile from Aswan to Luxor in a small cruise boat along with 15 odd templars on a journey to engage with the Gods of ancient Egypt. At many of the massive temples that we stopped at, you'd see beautiful stone carvings narrating myths from Kemet – Isis and Osiris, Horus, Seth, Sobek and so on.

Many of these stone carvings were pock-marked. When I inquired about it, I learned about early Christian Vandalism. Apparently, early Christians did the equivalent of what rebellious teens do today with their graffiti cans, but instead with a hammer and chisel, attempting to eradicate the old Gods because they believed in only one God.

And I thought, "what a massively ridiculous waste of human effort!"

Imagine, thousands of Christian fanatics diligently chipping away at these beautiful carvings. I wonder if a sane person ever crossed their path and found it ridiculous but held in their opinions because they did not want to "hurt their feelings".

It made me realize, that Ridicule plays an important role in human societal life.

Ridicule cuts through deep layers of Illusion like a knife through hot butter. If you resist the urge to ridicule and instead try to work with the illusion and attempt to reason with it, you've already lost the battle. Because in your stifling of your instinctual ridicule, you have already lent credence to the illusion thereby rooting it.

What are ways in which humans are diligently working hard today on absolutely ridiculous ideas?

Where am I stifling my innate sense of what is ridiculous because I want to be nice to people?

What is it like to express ridicule but not be married to it? To allow it to emerge and be expressed and be open to having my mind changed and also be open to being right about what I do find ridiculous.

How do we make space for the necessity of Ridicule while also not creating divisions between us all?

How can I ridicule what you are engaging in without ridiculing you?

These are some musings alive in me today.