March 27, 2024
Earlier this month, I set out
on a bit of a personal quest. You see, it’s come to my attention that I need to
laugh a bit more. Did I just write “a bit more”? Hell, I pride myself on being
transparent in these essays. I need to laugh, period.
I used to laugh a great deal.
Practically every single day, I would laugh at something silly or inane, or
downright hilarious. Often, I would laugh at myself, and feel no shame in that
whatsoever. Trust me, I can be a very funny person.
But lately—how lately I cannot
really say because this has been a slowly evolving situation—I’ve noticed I don’t
laugh much anymore.
Now, my husband, he laughs
every day. Through the day, certainly, but mostly in the evenings after our
shared TV time, when I am at my computer and he’s at his. And when I hear that
laughter, I grin. The sound of David’s laughter is my favorite thing to hear in
the entire world. And I know when I hear that laughter that he is listening to
one comic or another online, and thoroughly enjoying the experience.
Well, I want to laugh, too!
And it’s not as if I’m not trying. I, also, go online in the evenings in search
of entertainment. I look for short compilation videos on YouTube that promise
comedy, even hilarity! But I think I am simply not having much good luck
finding the right ones. I have learned that just because the title of the video
promises laughter, doesn’t mean it will deliver it. Oh sure, two out of fifty
memes may arouse a titter within me. Some an almost giggle. And once in a long
while there is one that makes me really, really laugh. I had one of those about
five days ago. Or was it longer than that?
But it’s like that old saying,
you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince. One really does have to
watch a lot of those videos to find some honestly funny moments. The only
question is whether or not the price of viewing so many stupid ones is worth having
been paid when you find that one gem.
I’m probably just being
greedy. Maybe I should feel content to experience one really good laugh once
a week, or so. But I’m not. I feel as if my soul needs more. The chemicals in my
body are likely out of balance, in need of those wondrous hormones that are
released as a side effect to laughter. I do know that it is medically
impossible to laugh and grow an ulcer at the same time.
My daughter was mentioning
that she watches a few comics online, and they are a riot! My ears perked up
and I asked her to name names. Now, perhaps it should have been a clue that she
said she would think on it and then get back to me. But she did get back
to me with a couple of names, which I immediately wrote down. And then, of
course, I checked them out.
Le sigh. When I take time and
think back, I realize that there have been times when daughter has thought
something was funny as hell, and sadly, I did not. And vice versa. Nothing
wrong with that because we do, each of us, possess different criteria when it comes
to what makes us laugh. For example, I love puns—the cleverer, the better. Now
for a lot of folks puns just make them roll their eyes and groan. But I find a
really good pun not only funny but refreshing. My latest discovery that made me
laugh out loud is this one: “Sweet dreams are made of cheese; who am I to diss
a brie?”
I have some favorite old jokes
that can still hit that internal funny bone of mine, and when I would crack up
in the past, others around me would just shake their heads and look at me as if
I had two of them. Heads, that is.
I am not one of those people
who assumes that the problem must be those other people, that because if I
think it’s a hoot, then a hoot must be! Nope, that thought would never inhabit
my brain. And the fact that it wouldn’t is in itself a clue.
I have been so close, in the
last few weeks, to wondering if I’ve somehow lost my sense of humor entirely. That
was such a scary and horrid thought that it set me back on my pins.
Rather than to continue to
mentally panic, I’ve taken a bit of time to think about the situation—my hunger
for laughter and seeming inability to find same—and I’ve come to another
conclusion altogether.
I know that to everything
there is a season. And I know that our best personal growth comes in those
times when we feel we’re lodged deeply and inexorably into a “valley”
experience. I know that for fact, and y’all have read those very words from me
over the years, and on more than one occasion.
Yes, I really do need a good
laugh or ten. I will just have to hold onto my faith and be patient that I will
get them, by and by.
Just as soon as the Good Lord
finishes helping me to grow some more.
Love,
Morgan
https://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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