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 pieces for this and other sites. In recent
months this endeavor has been an increasingly dark and taxing one, especially
for an aging carcass like mine. If I wasn’t blessed with a sense of humor, life
would have long since lost its luster. I’d likely 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 extraordinary 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 or a Babylon Bee post?
If you ask me, it is.
With all the evil being perpetrated
around the world, and the rapid decline and fall of the Unites States under the
Brandon Biden administration, 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 (quite 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. At first blush, clinically speaking,
humor doesn’t appear to have been a prerequisite for human life, whether one
believes in Creationism or evolution. Yet it helps us to slay the demons and to
not take ourselves and our troubles so seriously. Sometimes it is nice to just
enjoy a joke, a pun, or a funny story. Therefore, I would posit that humor is
necessary for a rich, full and rewarding life,
or the pursuit of happiness as our Founders dubbed it.
Humor: it’s not only funny, it’s
divine.
Thank you, God.
So come and have a seat at our
table some Thanksgiving. Just watch out for the whoopee cushions.
No comments:
Post a Comment