Is a little chaos actually good for us?

When I look at this question, I can’t help but chuckle. Personally, I have no time for tomfoolery. I don’t think there’s much room for it in this world, and I certainly don’t have the patience for people whose only goal is to irk everyone around them. I don’t do irksome.

Then I realized I might have been lumping everything together.

Under closer examination, I found a few exceptions. Shenanigans without responsibility can be dangerous—trust me, I know. But the right kind of shenanigans can be good for the soul. They remind us not to take ourselves quite so seriously.

Now, hijinks? I love me some hijinks. The harmless kind. The kind that leaves everyone with nothing more than bruised egos, wounded pride, and a story that somehow gets funnier every time it’s told.

The older I get, the more I realize practical jokes did not cause the real chaos. It’s the kind life delivers without asking permission.

Chaos has always been viewed as a bad thing. Something to avoid. Something to control. Something to survive. Yet sometimes we need a little chaos to remind us we’re still alive. To remind us that life is more than our homes, our cars, and the mindless routines we convince ourselves are keeping us grounded.

I’ve spent a lifetime navigating what most people would call chaos. Believe it or not, I’ve lived a blessed life overall. But blessings rarely travel alone. They often arrive with hardship, disappointment, grief, and the occasional nightmare.

Those moments didn’t just test me; they shaped me into the man I am. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing isn’t my call to make. In the end, that verdict belongs to the people I leave behind.

Maybe that’s why I no longer see all chaos as the enemy. The pointless kind that hurts people for no reason? I can do without that. But the kind that shakes us awake, reminds us that we’re human, exposes our weaknesses, and teaches us something about ourselves? That kind has its place.

Perhaps life isn’t asking us to eliminate chaos altogether. Perhaps it’s asking us to recognize the difference between reckless disorder and the unexpected moments that remind us we’re still capable of laughing, learning, and growing.

Just don’t confuse it with tomfoolery.