Nothing Useful is Built from Laughter.
In the Ga language, “gbo” can take on two meanings: (1) death or (2) pain. The reason, in fact, is that pain is actually a form of death. Slow, but death alright.
Still, in the same way that death is inevitable, pain too is inevitable. Ultimately, in the Gbe philosophical imagination, it is not whether people die or not, but how they die. In other words, the key point is about what people die for!
Better to have something gained through death, and/or pain, than to accomplish nothing through death. This is to say that dying/pain is a form of expense. Better that something useful is gained from the inevitability of pain or death.
Hence the proverb in Ga, “Agbooo, ayeee.” No pain, no gain. No suffering, no profit. All beautiful things amassed involve some form of dying or killing: (1) pain and/or (2) death.
Nothing is built from nothing. Better yet, nothing useful is built from laughter! All nice things are gained through painful sacrifices–through painful deaths.
Agbooo, ayeee.
Tswa Omanye Aba.
If anything useful came out of laughter it would break the second law of thermodynamics. Pain/Sacrifice in sense is creative… laughter is in excess of useful pain.
Yaaaaaao Onukpa !
Oyeewala Don!