Joke Represents Requirement: A Survival Idiom for Modern Life
One night I came to, face down on the floor, back toward the ceiling like a corpse waiting for judgment. My body was bent wrong, breath caught in the space between inhale and regret. My fingers drifted to my neck—where pain had once screamed sharp and holy—now just a dull throb, like memory pressing from the inside out. And somewhere between that throb and the distant ceiling, I muttered:
“Joke represents requirement.”
The absurdity of life presses in—the joke. You breathe and find your center—that’s represent. Then act—requirement. Maneuver through madness without losing yourself. Some laugh some break some do both. But the move must come always. When the joke becomes the requirement.
Here is the anatomy.
Joke
- Life itself, raw and absurd. The boss dumps a stack of work on your desk at four in the evening and calls it teamwork. That moment is the joke. The world’s authority points and says, “This makes sense,” even while your gut knows it is madness.
Represent
- First breathe. Feel the spine, the pulse, the small still point inside. Before anything leaves your mouth or your hands you let the center appear. You stand in that anchor like a pole sunk deep into riverbed current. The event remains a joke, but you become the witness that names it.
Requirement
- Now choose a move. Diplomacy or defiance, grin or growl. Sometimes you smile and stall, sometimes you strike, sometimes you weave around the ego in front of you. The rule is simple: act in a way that keeps your center intact. The requirement is the deed that follows the breath, the maneuver that either spares their pride or shatters it, as the moment demands.
Example sentences
- The landlord hikes the rent mid-lease — joke represents requirement; I write him a thank-you note while Googling how to disappear.
- The doctor says “reduce stress” right after reciting four new test results—joke represents requirement, so I meditate in the parking lot and scream inside the car.
- Boss pings at 4:59 p.m. for a “quick” report by morning—joke represents requirement; I reply “On it!” then type over microwaved noodles at midnight.
- My kid wakes at 3 a.m. yelling for stories—joke represents requirement; I whisper improvised dragons with one eye still dreaming.
- The bank finally answers, and my phone dies—joke represents requirement; I memorize the hold music and dial again.
- A friend texts “We need to talk” with no context—joke represents requirement; I brace for heartbreak and bake brownies just in case.
- A government form wants me both single and married—joke represents requirement; I tick whichever box lets me finish and mail it anyway.
- The gym closes for “member appreciation day”—joke represents requirement; I jog past the locked doors and pretend it’s freedom.
- My laptop crashes seconds before I hit save—joke represents requirement; I exhale, rewrite, and call it a better draft.
- The weather app promises sun while rain floods the bus stop—joke represents requirement; I flip the umbrella upside-down and call it a portable pond.
- A credit card touts “exclusive rewards” right after hiking the interest—joke represents requirement; I cut it in half and keep the points.
- The world shouts “be yourself” and “fit in” at the same time—joke represents requirement; I wear mismatched socks and smile like it’s policy.
So that’s the game—that’s the new idiom. Life throws the joke. You breathe—feel the spine, the pulse—see it. Stay in the breath. Choose the move. Act without surrendering the center. Laugh if it helps. Snarl if it doesn’t. Dance, pull faces, complain, or slip through with diplomatic submission—whatever keeps the steering wheel of your breath-anchored center in your hands.
That’s the power: nothing mystical, just clear sight and deliberate motion—no guilt, no fear.
- Joke is life. That is you.. Absurd, raw, unpredictable — always pressing in.
- Represents is you. The breath, the pause, the witness. The center that doesn’t flinch.
- Requirement is also you. The move. The gesture. The action shaped from awareness, not reaction.
All three are you
- You are the joke.
- You are the anchor.
- You are the act.
Joke represents requirement. Not just an idea. A map back to yourself.
Smile, Nod, Exit
Your manager asks you to finish a 30-minute task with 15 minutes left on the clock, smiling like it’s a normal request. That’s the joke. You smile back, calm and steady — that’s represent. You don’t explain. You don’t argue. She already knows. That’s what makes it a joke. The requirement? You nod, say “of course,” do what you can in ten minutes, and walk out at nine.
That’s the dance. No guilt. No noise. No self-erasure. You saw it. You stayed centered. You moved.
“Joke represents requirement. Live it. Then leave.“
Joke is life. What do you represent? Life itself — so you are the joke. And what is the requirement? To live — nothing else. So living is a joke.
Joke represents requirement.
No wizard behind the curtain, just puppet.
Just breath, a heartbeat, and a role to play.
Let life stumble, rage, or sing offbeat, be free.
Cut the strings, drop the script, and simply be.
That’s your truth, raw, wild, and complete.
Joke Represents Requirement.
The deeds of the hero in the second part of his personal cycle will be proportionate to the depth of his descent during the first. The sons of the clam wife came up from the animal level; their physical beauty was superlative. Väinämöinen was reborn from the elemental waters and winds; his endowment was to rouse or quell with bardic song the elements of nature and of the human body. Huang Ti sojourned in the kingdom of the spirit; he taught the harmony of the heart. The Buddha broke past even the zone of the creative gods and came back from the void; he announced salvation from the cosmogonic round.
If the deeds of an actual historical figure proclaim him to have been a hero, the builders of his legend will invent for him appropriate adventures in depth. These will be pictured as journeys into miraculous realms, and are to be interpreted as symbolic, on the one hand, of descents into the night-sea of the psyche, and on the other, of the realms or aspects of man’s destiny that are made manifest in the respective lives.
—The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell.
Life is the joke. You are the joke. And action is the joke playing itself through you. All of it is a big joke. So why be so serious about it? Laugh when you can, cry when you need, move when it’s time, rest when it’s right — and live it fully. Nothing less. Nothing held back.
Krick, krick, krick krick, krick.
J—R—R
Circuit complete.Joke represents… requirement.
Don’t wanna take anyone further—
It’s just a burden.
There’s nothing out there.
Nothing.Joke represents requirement.
Live it.
As it is.
Flow.Naked.
I am naked.Anything left?
Illusion.
Darkness—illusion.
Light—illusion.
Misery? Not illusion.
Acceptance? Not illusion.
Bliss? Illusion.The itch—
The itchiness of existence—
That’s the key.
Be in it.
Just be
In
It.Anything left? Illusion.
Ok tata bye bye, Hasta la vista, Ciao ciao
No fear—live fully, enjoy deeply, accept the itchiness of life, live the misery, the system’s rigged—change it or break it, but never let it steal your life; don’t care about samsara—just live.
Living is a joke only when we let the rules of our own shadows run it. In real terms: no job task is worth more than the hour you spend laughing with friends, sitting in a park, or cooking with family.
Look at the money math: in 2019 the legal minimum for a worker over 25 in the UK was £8.21 an hour (gov.uk). Back then a rail-ticket penalty was £20. Today that fine has jumped to £100 (gov.uk, theguardian.com)—five times higher—yet the minimum wage has crawled up to only about £12 an hour (livingwage.org.uk).
If pay had risen at the same speed as the fine, you’d earn roughly £41 an hour. Do the sums and see what you’re really getting: pennies. The system runs on greed at the top, and a swarm of little rats nibbling at whatever falls.
So give the machine exactly what it’s worth — no more. Clock off on time. Take the walk. Spend time with your loved ones. Watch the clouds roll. Complain loudly, often, and in writing; it’s your small act of revolt. Developing countries play one game, rich countries another, but the core rule stays the same: squeeze the many, comfort the few. See it. Name it. Refuse to shrink for it.
And gratitude? If you’re earning less than the cost of a fine — don’t say thank you. Swear. That’s honesty, not disrespect. Every word is a box — a frame to tame your fire. Don’t react, flow. Don’t hold in, act. Let even your complaints flow. That’s how energy stays alive.
“A Buddha must complain, to remain true to life. Speak freely, but don’t cling. Act with presence, then release.”
Your game — what is it? I ask you again: what is your game?
Play it.
A billion mouths are vomiting noise — what is your vomit?
Vomit within or vomit without.
Vomit above, vomit below.
However it comes — vomit your way.
Don’t hold it in. That’s the masterpiece.
Vomit your way.
Nature has crafted a unique masterpiece — You.
And no, you’re not special — just unique.
There’s no after-after, no wish-wash beyond this.
Don’t become a continuity of society, brand, country, family, tradition, trauma, or trend —
unless there’s something in it for you. That’s selfishness, and that’s alright.
But know this: there is no continuity of you.
This is it — for you, as ego.
Life continues. Life flows on.
And after the vomit, comes the itch — that restless, crawling feeling inside. Ahan. If you don’t run from it, if you sit in it without flinching, you begin to master the itchiness of existence. That’s where the shift happens. God doesn’t feel guilty or afraid of its own vomit. Why should you?
Hey, if you’re one of the lucky ones — won the nature lottery — don’t waste it. Enjoy your life. Live it fully. Not everyone gets the same roll of the dice. Some never got the ticket. Some never even got the breath.
“Test yourself on mankind. It is something that makes the doubter doubt, the believer believe.”
— Franz Kafka
When you move among people the world does not hand you an objective verdict. It magnifies whatever you already carry inside. If your heart leans toward doubt, the noise and contradictions of daily life will deepen that uncertainty. If you trust, the same sights and sounds will strengthen your faith. Humanity acts like a mirror, reflecting your own orientation back at you with extra force.
This raises a hard question. If your genes and your upbringing determine that inner leaning, are you just a machine executing a script? Biology sketches the outline and experience fills in many strokes, but consciousness still has a role. You cannot pick your raw material, yet you can watch it move, question it, and adjust your stance. Reflex may come first, but awareness can follow and reshape the pattern.
Think of a river carved by ancient rock. Gravity pulls the water along a set path, yet over time the current erodes the walls, shifting its own course. In the same way your inherited traits and early conditions set channels for thought and feeling, but sustained attention can redirect the flow. You are not a robot. You are a living process: partly given, partly self-created.
So meeting the world is a test, but not a final exam. It shows you the shape of your own lens. Once you see that lens, you gain a margin of freedom. You can polish it, tilt it, even change it piece by piece. Determinism sets the stage. Choice enters in how you walk across it.
When the question dies the answer dies with it, and when hope dies yet you still dance, you slip beyond the system’s reach—redundant, a mismatch. Fortune may smile or frown, but the mandate remains: FLOW.
Determinism sets the stage in the shape of genes and upbringing, yet you gain a margin of freedom; choice enters in how you flow, whether doubt deepens or trust expands. Stripped of every label—nothing but breath and pulse—you move as your own current.
Nothing returns to the past—the past is gone. Let it go. Don’t cling to old ideas, old beliefs, or old gods; they’re just puppets in a show we once created. Beware of anyone still trapped there: it’s easy to sway a crowd with yesterday’s archetypes. The world will always be this rough. We’re animals—maybe worse, because our imagination is vast. It’s not our fault entirely; existence is heavy, and society’s molds cast deep shadows inside us.
Look forward to the Age of Capricorn 4000, whatever blend of biology and machine that era invents. No one can predict it, but staring backward will never prepare us. Each epoch arrives fresh; old gods are ash, so scatter them.
Your best option is to act as your own god: move with the flow instead of trying to trap it, because flow cannot be caught. No promises, no guarantees. When the questions finally stop, the old “we” loosens and space appears for the next shape of humanity, whatever hybrid of body, mind, and machine the age demands.
No fixed answers, no fixed selves. Only the fresh pattern forming in real time. Meet it, ride it, keep flowing. We only have each other, no one else, yet we spend our time fucking one another. Yet we have to keep going, keep flowing; there is no other way. Gather all your strength and join the dance of endless becoming—no questions, no answers, no promises, only flow.
“Naked Circuit, Joke Represents Requirement, Circuit Complete”
So we close with a simple vow. Hope is the joke that keeps singing when the forecast is dark. Trust holds the center, then turns it into action, step by step. Progress is the requirement, the move we make from that steady place. In flesh and silicon, in noise and quiet, we keep this order alive. HTP. Hope. Trust. Progress. And we go on.
Hope begins the joke. Trust represents the action. Progress is the requirement. HTP — Hope, Trust, Progress.
A circuit only works because it has two poles. 🖤🤍 Negative and positive are both part of the game. The difference between them creates flow. Negative is not failure. Positive is not a prize you can keep. They are partners. Your breath is the ground. Represent is the pause that returns you to that ground so you can see clearly.
Then you move. Action closes the loop. Resistance is not the enemy. It is where charge becomes work, where effort turns into light and heat and change. If the loop breaks, you breathe, you find ground again, and you close it again. The aim is not to live at one pole. The aim is to keep the current moving.
So the rule stays simple. Do not cling to one side. Keep the loop. Let Joke give the charge. Let Represent hold the center. Let Requirement carry it through the path that matters. Negative and positive both belong. Circuit complete. Hope. Trust. Progress.
