The Young Rembrandt as Democritus the Laughing Philosopher |
Life without festival is like a long road without an inn.
— Democritus
Ancient Greeks thought of anyone from the city of Abdera: he's a buffoon.
That bias lives on even today in the phrase Abderian laughter, which denotes the laughter of a fool—of a schmegeggy who'll laugh at anything.
The citizens of Abdera owed their reputation to a native son, Democritus, known throughout the Greek Empire as the “Laughing Philosopher.”
Democritus believed the goal of man was cheerfulness—called euthymia in the jottings he left behind—and wrote, "They are the fools who live life without enjoyment of life."
Contemporaries said this "champion of cheerfulness" made a habit of staying merry by laughing at human foibles.
Laughter might seem foreign to us right now, as we steer through "these uncharted times" (a pet phrase of the peppy voiceover at my Safeway).
Success, wealth, independence and leisure sound good, until you count their cost in fear—fear of their loss.
You can't be fearful when you're cheerful.