30 St. Mary Axe

Amorella here. Is humor a spiritual value? Orndorff chose “weighty” as the most descriptive word for The Rosetta Stone in yesterday’s posting. Today he chose another photograph for the juxtaposition, the architectural contrast. While standing, camera in hand, within the ancient Tower of London he spotted what Londoners affectionately call “Gherkin” rising between the stone walls. Here is what Google came up with:

“30 St. Mary Axe in the City of London, affectionately known by Londoners as the Gherkin or the Erotic Gherkin, is located on the site of the former Baltic Exchange which was badly damaged by an IRA bomb in 1992. Controversially, the decision was taken to demolish the Exchange, a Grade 2 listed building.

The new tower looks somewhat like a bullet: circular, narrower at the base, widening on the floors above before tapering to its apex giving a distinctive outline on the London skyline. More than that, the distinctive new building has been designed to use 50% less energy than a traditional office block.”      > london.allinfo-about.com/ features/gherkin.html <

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I had to look up “gherkin” and M-W says it is “the immature fruit of the cucumber especially used for pickling.” The gherkin is a pickle. How funny. I think the building looks like a bullet. In either case, one sees the sharp contrast between old and new London.

Looking up humor in the M-W, I found this:

Humor: “TEMPERAMENT  *of cheerful humor*  c : an often temporary state of mind imposed especially by circumstances  *was in no humor to listen*  d : a sudden, unpredictable, or unreasoning inclination  : WHIM  *the uncertain humors of nature* 3 a : that quality which appeals to a sense of the ludicrous or absurdly incongruous  b : the mental faculty of discovering, expressing, or appreciating the ludicrous or absurdly incongruous.”

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I can see from this definition that it is no wonder that Amorella says the Dead have a different appreciation of humor. Recognizing one’s self as being both dead and alive at the same time would have to be absurdly incongruous, at the very least. What else could one do but laugh or at least inwardly smile. And this is not even gallows humor which makes this concept all the more humorous.

Amorella again. I see the above as an example of spiritual humor. Others may see nothing of the sort. Modern humor leaves the ancient human spirit in something of a pickle though, does it not?