At Fools Mission , the value of accompaniment begins with embracing a life of service. We celebrate when moms are reunited with their daughters, or undocumented immigrants shed tears of gratitude for supportive companionship. Nothing can quite compare with connecting a homeless person with shelter, a grade-school kid with reading skills, or an immigrant parent with a green card. The lessons in humility and self-awareness along the way are legion, and the numinous quality of that occasional victory can transform your life.
What do middle class fools like me get out of these kinds of experiences? For me, they expand my emotional range and offer an antidote to emotional paralysis. I agree with psychologists who say you can’t suppress sad feelings without stifling happy ones, too. When I worked at a Silicon Valley software company I knew plenty of co-workers who live in quiet desperation, taking antidepressants and crying at their desks. Fear and isolation know no boundaries of class. Seeking comfort in monoculture isn’t any better remedy in human society than it is in agriculture, so I seek out the company of people whose lives are different from my own.
Fools trust direct experience as a means to discover how the world works, so they can rely less on second-hand judgments. As human beings, we can’t stop making judgments—good judgment is essential. On the journey of the fool, we become aware of our judgments. We begin to distinguish the essential from the trivial; harshness from kindness; irritation from tribulation. By spending time with people whose lives are different from our own, we temper our judgments with direct witness of the experiences of others. This nurtures empathy, reduces ego-based behavior, and makes it easier to figure out the next right course of action. In later stages of the journey, radical compassion releases floodgates of joy.
The lifestyle of the fool offers no guarantees of comfort, security, or perfection. What lifestyle does? Yet it can liberate you from unceasing chatter in your head about accomplishment, self worth, or a false sense of superiority. At its best, the way of the fool leads you to that “Aha!” moment when you recognize that nothing can cut you off from human love and connection unless you create alienation on your own. For the fool, this state of awareness is the essence of freedom and fulfillment. Then the real party begins.