I made it through Madonna’s quite spectacular half-time show and then I abandoned Super Bowl XLVI for “Lenin’s Tomb,” the wonderful book by David Remnick on the collapse of the Soviet Union. I watched the first-half alone, as the house split by gender. All the women – Maria, Frieda, and even the loyal Lenore – moved to the other side of the house as soon as the game came on, and only Izzy stayed with me.

It wasn’t so bad. I did not understand much of what was happening – it is a complex game – but I appreciated the fact that so many people obviously enjoyed it. I liked Clint Eastwood’s Detroit ad. I love Madonna’s production skills.

This week, I got an important lesson in the power, spirituality and importance of humor. Our public spaces seem increasingly humorless to me, and one reason I always loved Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill was that they often used humor, even in the darkest days of war. One of the awful side-affects of our increasingly fearful culture – of the Fear Machine – is humorless and self-righteousness. Writing about Planned Parenthood, even briefly, pulled me into this self-righteous, divisive and humorless world, and while I don’t regret writing about it, I don’t belong in this world. The world of politics, media, legal and social phobias, of health care warnings and civic alarms is a grim, angry, Orwellian place. People convinced of their moral purity or fearful of even speaking openly and honestly are by necessity joyless and angry. I do not wish to be joyless or angry. It is the antithesis of a meaningful or spiritual life.

I was struck looking back on this week, realizing that after the Planned Parenthood posts,  I immediately – and unconsciously – starting writing funnier stuff, and people enjoyed it. I wrote about the brave mouse, about Lenore, and poked a little fun at the Super Bowl. This reminded me that it is so important to laugh, and we often forget to do it.

I like to do it, and am sometimes good at it. It is a gift, important, and I will remember the power of humor, and its connection to our spiritual selves. Laughter is so important to a spiritual life.  How sad and grim to be angry and joyless in our lives.