Are you Serious?

or: Are you for real?

The vague nature of the Duck has led many to question whether we are serious about It or not. This question takes many forms, but the general direction is an expression of doubt, either about those on the Duck Path or the Duck itself.

"Are you serious?" This is a very common question posed to those who have achieved Duck-consciousness.

This may stem from assumptions that religion must be boring or stable to be real. The Duck is neither boring nor stable; indeed, It is capable of of flight at a moment's notice.

Duckists are very often filled with Joy and Laughter. This comes from the Duck-Mind. Whether we are laughing or serious, we are still Ducky.

In this sense, it is irrelevant whether we are serious or joking. We have the Duck, and that is the Truth that Matters. If you take the Duck seriously, then It is serious. If you take the Duck as a joke, It is a joke. It remains the Duck.

It is in this sense, and only this sense, that the Duck is stable; while the Duck may follow certain patterns, there is always the random wind, the changing nature of the water; even land is in a constant state of flux. But the Duck, in any of its permutations, is still the Duck. A Quack is still a Quack. As time goes by.

Yes, the Duck is impermanent, but without the Duck, the survival of the human race for more than a century or so is unthinkable. The Duck is one of the keys to human survival--this, but of course, the leek, too, and one cannot ignore the orange... the orange... the orange....

The Duck Within must be capable of laughter. Laughter makes us Ducky. Seriousness makes us Ducky, too, but in a different way.

One cannot assume that something that makes us laugh is not true. Comedians make us laugh sometimes, but no one is seriously challenging their existence--just whether they are funny or not.

Neither can we assume that what makes us laugh is true. But if a religion doesn't have the power to make us laugh, what power does it have? If the truth is never funny, why would anyone want to discover the truth?