Think about it for just a fleeting moment. Don't dwell on it, just let it waft by.

Life on planet earth is short and brutish, bristling with threats of all sorts from all quarters. Our world is filled with senseless brutality, disease, suffering and death. We have lots of theories that attribute a measure of meaning to the mad cacophony, but if we are honest with ourselves, the truth is we have no idea how we came to be here, why we are here, what we are supposed to do now, and what's going to happen next. Life may have meaning, but if it does, this is largely because we invest it with meaning. Life does not, after all, come with a set of instructions. Certainly we can lead happy and joyous lives. Some people do. This is not impossible, it's just not easy.

So by rights, if we look at it coolly and objectively, we all ought to go immediately insane. That we do not, is perhaps the greatest miracle in all of creation. And I think I know the trick. You see, God bestowed upon us two great gifts, pearls beyond all price. These two gifts are what keep most of us from lapsing into Existentialism or some similar despair, and keep us from putting Jack Kevorkian's phone number at the front of our Rolodex. These simple gifts are humor and music.

The ability to laugh in the face of life is nothing short of a miracle. It transcends reason. In fact, the best humor is that which is most poignant, that which points out the absurdity and folly of human life. That we can look at our folly and laugh, is one of the most liberating forces in human life. No political system, no philosophy, no religion, no work, no relationship has the simple transformative power of a good stand-up comedian. Comedians ought, by rights, to be the leaders of any sane culture. Either them, or the musicians.

Music is the other bit of pure magic in this old world. Where it comes from, nobody really knows. What it is, is even less clear. But its effects are beyond dispute. Music can cause us to dance, to sing, to grin like fools, to momentarily move beyond ourselves and our everyday concerns. Music, they now tell us, can even heal mind and body. The ancients knew this, but modern Western science now vouchsafes it as well. Music is a truly mystical force in the simple and straightforward sense that we have absolutely no idea what it is or where it comes from. Some special people have the ability to reach into the ethers and pluck out a melody. And some special people touched by the kiss of poetry have the ability to match this melody to words. Nobody really understands any of this, but life would be virtually unbearable without it.

I have a deep theory about why humor and music work as they do. We now know that humans have a left brain that is analytical and verbal and a right brain that is analogical, artistic, spatial and non-verbal. I suspect that humor and music create a momentary bridge between left and right brains and make us a little bit more whole than usual. And it is in this wholeness that our deep happiness and contentment lies. But I mention this deep theory just for the heck of it. Like all deep theories, it is just a story we tell ourselves to hide from the unremitting uncertainty and sheer terror of life. Unremitting that is, except for those golden moments when a good joke or a glorious piece of music convey to us once more, God's precious gifts to humanity.