Crusade for Sense

July 1

The saying goes that explaining a joke is like dissecting a rat: you’ll understand it, but the rat dies in the process. 

The sayings are in and of themselves somewhat quiet about whether or not the rat ever really gets the joke. Or what qualifies as a humor to a rat.

The sayings, additionally, give little commentary as to who exactly is doing the dissecting, the slicing, the splitting. Tiny rats with tiny lab coats in a tiny rat surgery wing, doing everything they can to understand some kind of rare rat condition described only as “humor”?

Maybe those rat surgeons could teach a lesson—that needing something to make sense involves fundamentally changing it, often in a manner that is lethal to meaning in the first place.

Or maybe they’re just rats, rats telling jokes, jokes that no one understands, because the rats are still living.

Morning Reading is a daily email to help center yourself, reflect, and prepare for the day. It’s sent with love from your friend, Zach in Austin, Texas. He even drew the logo himself.

Copyright (C) Want to change how you receive these emails?You can update your preferences or unsubscribe