Happy April Fools Day?

UNITED STATES
AlterNet

Joey Piscitelli April 1, 2012

What’s a fool? The dictionary defines it as ; “A person lacking in judgment; one who is victimized; or made to appear foolish; a harmlessly deranged person lacking in understanding; a jester; clown,” etc.

And today happens to be “April Fools Day,” which Wiki defines as a day when people play jokes, hoaxes, and foolishness on one another. Practical jokes are played on friends, family, teachers, colleagues, etc. The person who the hoax is played on, or is fooled, is often called a victim.

When the hoax is successfully played on the victim, then the event can be concluded by saying “April Fool!” And this tradition can be celebrated by all involved in the hoax; to laugh, and share in the merriment of the foolish experience.

No harm done.

Well, maybe. That’s up to interpretation and argument, like everything else. Sometimes, people do not like to be the recipient of a hoax, or to be made a fool by a person who was successful in taking advantage of their trust – as in the definition of a fool as “a person lacking in judgement; or one who is victimized”.

In that sense, I believe, that I am a fool- because that definition haunts me.
I was the victim of a hoax years ago, and I’m reminded of that almost everyday of my life. Especially today, when being a fool is commemorated. I’m still trying to figure out who was it that played the hoax on me. Was it God? Was it the Catholic Church? Was it my belief that priests are the representatives of God on this earth? Or was it myself?
Perhaps it was all of the above. The hoax was complicated.

You see, I was born and raised Catholic, and I had been programmed to believe that God was everywhere, and that he protected me, and that priests were the closest men on earth to God, and that the world was a safe place for me as a child. So I was a happy, fun loving kid, and April Fools Day was something to look forward to. It was a day of clowning, and joking, and nobody was really hurt, because the hoax always ended in a laugh. I was always excited to be the victim in an April Fools antic.

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