The absurdities of this world are everywhere, and so familiar that we usually don't even notice them, at least until some comedian points them out to us. But these absurdities are tremendously important signposts we are missing, evidence that humanity is genuinely in the grips of a valid spiritual dilemma.

Whenever I run across absurdities, I think, "something's wrong. That's not the way it's supposed to be." I think these absurdities occur when we have lost our way, somehow. It's like reverse synchronization, the opposite of meaningful things occurring at appropriate moments. In both cases, I believe the Primordial Soul, or The Universe, or God, is trying to tell us something.

The whole world, DivisionTheory suggests to me, is currently backwards and upside down; the Primordial Division, the Biblical "Fall" of man, reversed the order of things.

Prior to it, DivisionTheory suggests, the conscious was very much under the control of the unconscious; the conscious was wedded so closely to the unconscious that it constantly heard and felt the moral judgments of the unconscious, and was guided thereby.

But following the Division, this nature order was reversed - the conscious rebelled from the controlling stranglehold of the unconscious, refusing to always obey the moral dictates of the unconscious. the conscious rebelled, pushing away the unconscious, pushing it down and

out of its conscious awareness.

Since the original primordial order has been reversed, a curious phenomenon often occurs - a sort of curiously ridiculous absurdity. This is seen in countless ways:

(1) in legal systems whose sense of law and order almost always rule out all possibility of satisfying one's sense of right and wrong;

(2) in driving in parkways and parking in driveways,

(3) in God looking sometimes like the devil, and the devil sometimes like God,

(4) by religions often finding more success at preventing spirituality than in advancing it.

(5) and (add your own example here).

I think absurdity is like a secret signal from the unconscious, and when you see it, what you are seeing is the unconscious sending a message - that the whole order is wrong, that everything is upside down, absurd. The conscious never intends to design anything with this absurdity in

place, yet the absurdity shows up everywhere, incessantly, the ongoing message to the culture from the unconscious.

If one can at least still see the absurdity, I think one still has some health inside; the voice of the unconscious has not been entirely silenced. If you notice the absurdity easily, the union between your conscious and unconscious is still hopeful.

To notice the absurdity is, I think, to be touched by the voice of the soul, to have the soul strengthen within. It is a very healthy and healing thing to be touched by the voice of the soul; it makes you feel good, and alive, and healthy. Thus, much humor, especially the best humor (well, IMO), relies on pointing out the absurdities people regularly encounter in life, for in doing so, in recognizing the absurdities, we all draw closer to the voice of our own souls, if but for a moment.