October 22, 2025
Sometimes the universe feels like it’s got a wicked sense of humor, and the punchline is usually us. In today’s Thought of the Day and Question of the Day, we’re diving into the darkly comic wisdom of H.P. Lovecraft and asking whether you’ve ever experienced anything that made you question what’s real.
It’s part philosophy, part campfire story, and part confession from someone who’s both fascinated and freaked out by things that go bump in the night.
Thought of the Day: “The world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind.” — H.P. Lovecraft
Lovecraft had a way of looking at humanity and seeing the ants scrambling around on a picnic blanket, convinced we’re running the show while the universe watches and chuckles.
And honestly, he’s not wrong.
We take ourselves so seriously, our routines, our deadlines, our carefully curated online lives. Meanwhile, nature and chaos are out there doing open mic nights at our expense. The volcano doesn’t care about your meeting. The lightning bolt didn’t check your calendar before striking your Wi-Fi router.
It’s humbling, if not hilarious, to realize that most of what we stress over probably doesn’t even make it into the cosmic blooper reel. The universe isn’t cruel, it’s just indifferent. And maybe that’s the joke Lovecraft was talking about: the idea that we spend our days trying to impose order on a world that never agreed to be tidy in the first place.
Sometimes, laughter really is the only rational response to existence.
If you’ve ever felt the world laugh at you instead of with you, you’re in good company. And that’s the brilliance of it all. We’re both the punchline and the audience.
If you like this theme of cosmic irony, you might also enjoy my post “Ghosts are only scary when you don’t face them.”because sometimes, perspective is the only thing that separates tragedy from comedy.
Question of the Day: Have you ever experienced anything paranormal?
Now, let’s take that sense of cosmic humor and turn it up a notch.
“Paranormal” can mean a lot of things. Ghosts. Glitches in the matrix. That one time your phone turned on by itself after you swore you turned it off. But it can also mean moments that feel too strange, too coincidental, or too charged to brush off as “normal.”
A few months after my mother-in-law passed away, one of my son’s toys started making noise out of nowhere. And no, it wasn’t supposed to. (Kidding—it was electronic) It would chirp and beep on its own at random times during the day, and then, of course, in the middle of the night when the house was still and quiet.
The first few times, we tried to laugh it off. Batteries can be weird, right? But after the second day of unprompted toy chatter echoing through the hallway, we decided enough was enough. We took the batteries out, set it aside, and finally, the house went silent again. A few days later, we got rid of the toy entirely.
Was it a malfunction? Probably. Was it something else? Maybe. But in that moment, when the toy spoke one last time from across the room, with no one touching it, I couldn’t help but think someone might have been saying hello. Or goodbye.
Either way, it was one of those moments that makes you stop pretending you’ve got the world figured out. Because sometimes, it seems the universe, and maybe the people we love, still find ways to get the last laugh.
Maybe the paranormal is less about the existence of ghosts and more about the reminder that we don’t have all the answers. Maybe it’s the universe’s way of nudging us and saying, “You think you’ve got this all figured out? Think again.”
Lovecraft himself believed in the terror of the unknown, not necessarily in ghosts or monsters, but in the idea that there are truths so vast and strange that our minds can’t process them.
If you’ve ever felt that eerie mix of awe and fear, that moment when your rational brain takes a backseat to pure wonder, then yeah, you’ve experienced something paranormal.
For more musings on the unknown, check out “There Is No Terror in the Bang, Only in the Anticipation of It”.
Join the Conversation
Have you ever seen something you couldn’t explain? Heard your name whispered when no one was around? Or maybe you just have a great story that walks the line between creepy and funny.
Leave a comment below, I’d love to hear your version of “paranormal.”
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Take a minute a day to think differently. Or, at least, to laugh at the absurdity of it all.