It's
weird how in comedy you focus on the details of life, then discard a
lot of the deeper meaning and go for the joke. After so many years of
this - having to have the end result be a laugh made me stay away from
more dangerous topics. Topics like my sister with cerebral palsy, being
raised by a black woman, having my mom die young before I was ready, and
even more dangerous topics I'm too frightened to mention.
I'm learning the great creative adventure of not going for the laugh, but rather letting the writing of a story unfold. As I release my latest book to you, "The Message of You" - I realize that I wrote it because I was learning the same lessons I was putting to paper: that ALL our stories, both funny and dramatic -- have a need to be expressed.
The
interesting part is that even in dramatic stories, sometimes the laugh
organically finds it's moment, without any help from us. It's an amazing
turn when even in the darkest moments of life, a laugh gets caught on a
jagged edge of sorrow, and that laugh comes from a divine place. It's
the laugh of transformation - when we can see the humor in the darkness,
it lights a path to healing.
Maybe, finding those moments when tragedy turns into comedy - instead of the other way around - is the magic we ALL seek.
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