Why I Enjoy Tragedy Over Comedy

After reading the Gospel As Tragedy and as Comedy, I can’t help but go back to the tragedy aspect of it. Looking deeper at both interpretations I find myself actually enjoying the tragedy viewpoint more; not because I enjoy seeing the pitfalls or failures of others, but I feel a more sense of relief while reading them because I can relate heavily to them. With tragedy, I find that I connect closely with the stories because I’m drawn by the sorrow in them. Throughout my life in fact, I have always been low on the scale of self esteem for myself and how I was perceived by others, so naturally I always had my head turned over my shoulders making sure I was doing alright. Being an introvert myself goes hand in hand with this as well because I often find myself wanting to be alone always thinking of the story that wants to be told. Some might think after reading this that I'm this depressed teen that hates life and hates comedy. Although some may think that, I feel that thinking this way is more realistic. I love being happy and I especially love a good laugh. It can make a day so much better and push you through the hard times. My way of thinking is to just explore every reach of possibility to expand my mind.

            I can’t remember where this line was in the comedy section we read, but this line was on our reading guide:

 “As much it is our hope, it is our hopelessness that brings us to church of a Sunday, and any preacher who, whatever else he speaks, does not speak to that hopelessness might as well save his breath.” 

This quote really hit home for me because I do feel that we find out the most about others and ourselves when we are in fact hopeless. I love being happy as much as the next person, but as weird as it may sound, I enjoy the times when I’m hopeless and unsure. It shows that I’m human and that we all have flaws. In fact, I also believe that some of the best stories ever told do come from our hopelessness. Our scars as humans give our stories a more rawness that cannot be achieved any way else. If we can’t explore our own hopelessness, then I think we “might as well save our breath.”