I listen to music on a good pair of noise canceling headphones when I paint.  Yesterday, I found myself dancing and jumping around to the music.  I felt so good; my body so in tune.  It was pure joy and passion.  It felt like laughter.  So, maybe I don't have to travel to unseen worlds if I have this in my life.  If I can laugh with the pure joy of being.  

I'm reading a book called Laughing Your Way to Grace.  The author talks about why no one laughs in church. She says it's not surprising given the image with which most Christians grow up.  They see God as an unsmiling and vengeful; certainly never laughing.  She talks about how these images of God form in our childhood along with that whole list of rules that follow us throughout our life.  You know the ones; you can't have dessert until you eat your dinner, you can't go out and play until you finish your homework, you can't....., you can't....., you can't. She says we continually say "no"  to life's joys and desserts.

I guess the question is "why"?  Is there some end we are working toward that necessitates us following the rules?  She uses a quote from Erma Bombeck that clearly identifies the problem:  "Think about the tragic nature of the women on the Titanic who, on that fateful evening, said no to dessert."

I don't want to say no to dessert, and joy, and laughter, and passion and freedom.  I don't see the point.  At the end of the day (or my life) I don't want to have turned my back on joy for a bunch of worthless "shoulds".