clowns who drive...

One thing which never fails to crack me up is a clown driving a car. To be driving my own car, turn to the side, and see a clown operating a motor vehicle beside me, is so incongruous - I have to chortle.

For one, clowning is kind of a lost art. You just don't see them around much anymore. And when you do, you expect them at a child's birthday party or "Family Night" at the Chic Fil A, but not out doing something real people do. I think the fact that I have so rarely seen a clown driving a car - also makes it funny.

Saturday, I had a clown-driving sighting. I was pulling into Burger King with the kids, and I saw two clowns pulling out in their sedan - I almost lost it. Then about 30 minutes later- on the same road- I saw two clowns driving past me (I think they were the same ones, possibly lost and trying to find the birthday party they were due at - wouldn't you expect a clown to be incompetent with directions?) - and I almost did a spit-take.

I have never laughed so hard as the time I was driving my mother and sister somewhere in my early twenties. We were taking a backroad through upstate New York and had lost our way. No one was around, the scenery was beautiful, but we were asking ourselves how to get back to a main road. Suddenly out of nowwhere, I look in the rearview mirror and there's a clown solo driving in a car behind me. Our eyes locked, and I lost it. My passengers quickly caught on and we all were in tears, wondering why this clown was following 10 feet behind us in the middle of nowwhere. The clown lost it, too, seeing us laughing at her. We shared a moment together that day with all clowns, I believe. A moment when an interloper like myself was let in on the secret of why they clown, and the hope and joy they aspire to bring to so many. Odd though, how clowns so often elicit fear and hysteria from the very objects of their attention. My two oldest children were horrified at the sight of a clown when they were toddlers...

And now in the spirit of full-disclosure, I must come clean with you (as would a journalist writing about a subsidiary owned by his newspaper)... I once was a clown. Once. I was taking a college course in "Drama Ministry" and we covered "Clowning" in the curriculum. We were required to dress the part, apply our own makeup and name ourselves. I have no idea the name I chose, but I felt so self-concious on our trip to a children's daycare. We performed a series of mute sketches, paraded around, and waddled off - but my heart wasn't in it. Pity we walked to the performance, it would have been great to actually have been a clown in a car myself...