I hate April Fool’s Day and am glad I got through it without getting any on me.  I dislike feeling suspicious and wondering if someone is lying to me. It’s harassment.

What’s the trick to being comfortable with the idea of being fooled?

“It’s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and leave no doubt.”

Mark Twain

“He who lives without folly isn’t so wise as he thinks.”

François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld

What’s it all about?  Why is it a good thing?  And who’s this Duc Guy?  Or would that be Gee?  Do I need to lighten-th-f-up?

I’ve read various accounts of how and why the nearly world-wide phenomena started and everyone’s got a story.  Most of them come down to someone having an excuse to make fun of someone else that they thought was being too uppity.  Now-a-days, if they aren’t actually uppity, they’re fooled into believing a lie so that they can be ridiculed for being gullible.  Ah, evolution.

There’s one nice-ish history that I’ve read.  The novareinna website sports the most horrid little cartoon bear on it’s “All Fool’s Day” page, but once I ignored that, I liked the first bit of purported history.  They say it goes back to being fooled by nature in the spring.  The world is starting to change and Mother Nature keeps fooling us mortals with rain and sunshine so that we don’t know what to expect.

I like that better.  It could be hogwash, but I’m willing to be fooled here.  We’re all in it together.  We’re all experiencing the same ebb and flow of nature.  We’re all learning that sometimes things cannot be safely predicted and that it’s more natural to just roll with it.

Oh.

Well.

Significantly and With a Slight Stick up my Butt,

Susan Scot Fry

Update…  There’s another aspect I hadn’t considered.  Generosity.  Sometimes, foolishness is an invitation to break the routine, go topsy-turvy and experience liberation.  If you know that it’s April Fool’s, then the joke isn’t mean spirited.

That’s really what I have a problem with – this and anytime.  Meanness.  Doing something on purpose to make someone feel bad.  There are people like that and April Fools’ Day gives them license to say “Hey, I was just joking.”

All it takes (an uber loaded phrase) is to assume best intentions.  Expect good things.  And all manner of things will be well.