I was watching an Adam Sandler movie ("Bedtime Stories") with my youngest daughter the other night, and there's one scene where the Sandler character is supposed to be reading a story to the two children of his way-too-earnest-and-sanctimonious sister.
The only two story books he can find in their bedroom are Rainbow Alligator Saves the Wetlands and Organic Squirrel Gets a Bike Helmet.
Hah! It did us a world of good to laugh so hard, and I think (it never pays to analyze these things too closely) what made it so funny was the scene's tension between earnestness and absurdity. Which is something we need when studying a subject like theology: our study takes us, it is true, into deep subjects, but nobody benefits if our endeavors leave us humorless, ponderous, and blasé, cheerless casualties of our own scholarship. The end of the semester, with all its attendant deadlines and demands, is a very good time to keep the lighter side of things in view.
One little-known fact about the library's excellent collection is this: if you do a keyword search in MARTIN (the library's web catalog) using the single word "humor," you will get a list of 125 results. That speaks well of the people who have selected items over the years, don't you think? Examples: Zwingli's Humor, And the Laugh Shall Be First: A Treasury of Religious Humor, Jokes of Sigmund Freud (who knew?), Saints, Demons, and Asses: Southern Preacher Jokes, and many, many more.
Enjoy!
I am a big fan of Adam Sandler. I also like bedtime stories. He is great. right?
Posted by: Small Business Loans | September 10, 2009 at 10:53 PM
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Posted by: twitter.com/SafeTouch | September 21, 2009 at 12:14 PM
He is great.... become fun to
Posted by: iman354 | October 28, 2009 at 10:39 PM
nice article.. thanks for sharing..
Posted by: 2012 | November 18, 2009 at 01:54 AM
You mentioned the extensive collection of humor results. Are any of them audio CD? I love to listen to a funny CD when I have a sometime alone in the car.
Posted by: Au Pair Agency | November 19, 2009 at 08:25 PM