One of the secrets to happiness is a good and ready sense of humor. Every study of happy people shows them to have had or developed humor as a strong character trait. Why is humor so essential to happiness?  Well, it breaks up the habitual seriousness  that one almost inevitably falls into in Life if you don’t cultivate a sense of humor. It is a release in this sense. A genre of humor is referred to as “the reversal” which consists of stating a reality everyone is familiar with and then stating/juxtaposing an absurdity that mocks it right afterwards. This goes right to the heart of Grace which is the fully integrated state, a mental and emotional integration of opposites from which some higher, or in the case of humor some higher and/or lighter truth is recognized.  A strong sense of humor also enables the mind to flow through and past the tears, pain, personal offenses to self and others and inevitable sufferings of Life. If we could all learn to be “the perfect fool” or “the jester” after allowing ourselves to suffer first we could walk through Life…in an utter state of Grace.