Humor.
It’s
one of the things for which I’m most thankful. I scour recent headlines and
delve into various news stories on a daily basis as I prepare to write a post
for this site. If I wasn’t blessed with a sense of humor, life would’ve lost
its luster for me a long time ago. I’d be knitting cummerbunds on a ranch
outside of Tierra del Fuego while humming “Classical Gas,” or making custom
license plates in a large, secure edifice with lots of cons, and very few pros.
Some
folks are blessed with gifts such as intelligence and perception, and that is
wonderful on its face, but many of the brightest and most inquisitive minds are
tormented by these very same qualities and capacities.
We all
know of the five senses: sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing. And we frequently
hear talk of someone possessing a “sixth sense,” a keen intuitive power.
Perhaps the ability to predict the stock market or know when the phone is about
to ring. My preferred sixth sense is a sense
of humor. Think about it. Unlike the five senses of sight, touch, smell, taste
and hearing, a sense of humor appears utterly unnecessary for our species- or
any species- survival. We can see a dangerous situation developing, touch a hot
surface and pull back our hand before it’s seriously damaged, smell a gas leak,
taste spoiled or rotten food and spit it out, and hear a storm coming. But, is
it vitally important that we can laugh at a Monty Python skit?
If you
ask me…it is.
With all the nonsense occurring
around the world, I would have taken leave of my senses long ago if it wasn’t
for the sense God gave me. The life affirming sense of humor. I am reminded of a risqué movie called Skin Deep in
which the late John Ritter played a character who was struggling with
depression. Towards the end of the flick, as he began to come to terms with his
life, he was sitting on the beach near the ocean when he was suddenly swept
away by a giant, rogue wave that he failed to see coming. After being deposited some distance away, he got to his
feet and remarked with knowing wonder and a wry smirk: “There is a God! And He’s a gag writer!” He was
fine with that realization.
So am I.
Humor: it’s not only funny, it’s
divine. Thank you, God.
Happy Thanksgiving.
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