Finding the funny
I have learned that the best way to conquer the annoyances of daily life is to use humor as a weapon. It is a powerful tool. I use comedy to lower my blood pressure. That, and Carvedilol twice a day. Beta blockers and buffoonery are the best way to beat high blood pressure.
Petty grievances pop up all of the time. The trick is to laugh at them, instead of letting them win. Someone once said, “Resentment is like swallowing poison and expecting the other person to die.”
I have choked on resentment.
I can be petty. I can be so petty the Heartbreakers follow me around hoping I’ll break into a chorus of “American Girl.”
Years ago, when an unwanted person showed up at my birthday party, I said, “I would like to thank all of my friends – and Cyrus – for coming out tonight.”
I changed the name to protect the not-so-innocent.
I am, however, trying to go another way. See my last column on the power of positivity. The most effective tool for disarming negative emotions is humor.
Humor helps. I’m getting better and better, but I’m not “there” yet. It will be decades before I’m on a mountaintop, sitting criss-cross applesauce, stroking my long, white beard, dispensing age-old wisdom, if ever. Let me, at least, be your comedy guru.
Longtime readers know that when I get a flat tire, I don’t call up AAA and whine. I call them up and say, “Here’s the deal … I have three perfectly good tires on my car right now.”
The incongruity, the twist, makes me laugh, and hopefully makes the dispatcher laugh as well.
Side note: I don’t think it gets the van moving any faster toward me, but it makes me happy.
But I digress, like I do. The trick is to find a humorous workaround for my problems, taking them and skewing them from another, sillier perspective.
The next time someone cuts you off in traffic, don’t get angry. Instead of fuming at the Doo-Doo Head in front of you, find a ridiculous excuse for their behavior. Try this experiment: extrapolate why the other driver is in such a hurry.
His pregnant wife is in the back seat, crowning.
She is racing home because her cousin is on tonight’s episode of “Jeopardy.”
They are rushing to their freezer because their car is filled with popsicles.
The laughter will wash away the bitterness.
If that’s too hard, picture them as Wile E. Coyote. Imagine all sorts of scenarios of potential harm. Think “I’d like to drop an anvil on their head,” or “I would like to push them into an active volcano.”
The wilder the torture, the funnier.
“I want to strip them naked and roll them around in thumb tacks.”
I am not going to do those things (please note the legal disclaimer), but the imagined punishment instantly pushes me into a better mood.
I implore you all, gentle readers, to find the funny. You’ll be glad you did.