Amuse Me

Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, be always in your own best company.

Dana Bate
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I was in rehearsal for an original play, a comedy, and one day on my way to work I came across the playwright and one of the actors. I told them I had just been on the phone with a friend in New York who asked me how it was going and I had replied "They make me go out on the stage in front of everybody and expose my comic timing."

I am one who fortunately developed an appreciation for the ironies and absurdities of life. Years ago I met an older woman who was so unconcerned about growing older that she would laugh when she couldn't remember a name. To her age was just an annoying inconvenience and was not about who she really was.

There is nothing in this world that is so deadly serious that it doesn't have its humorous side. I don't mean I would laugh at another creature's suffering, but I may ultimately laugh at my absurd struggles trying to alleviate that suffering. If the pig out wits the farmer and escapes being slaughtered I cheer for the pig, even though I know its freedom is probably temporary. But I hope the farmer gets a genuine laugh from it.

I also find humor in my own struggles to survive and live. Why get outraged and curse because there is an ice filled snow bank in your way. Get over it, get through it or get around it. In any case you're going to look funny doing it. So laugh at yourself.

Unfortunately my sense of humor has a negative side to it. I also can't remember names. And I have to go slowly and stagger as I walk, another result of age. And if I have to face an ice filled snowbank it's a major problem. But I confront all those problems and others with a smile on my face because I don't take any of it seriously. But sometimes other people do. If I say that I stagger to the market and stagger home again people think I'm complaining about my lot in life. "Woe is me, look how sick and decrepit I am. Alas and alack. How sad." Well it isn't. Life isn't perfect. Have you noticed that? "Much of grief shows still some want of wit" wrote Shakespeare.

Once a month I meet with a surly group who seem to think everything I have to say is of no value. But whether I'm with them, with others or by myself I'm accompanied by a sense of humor. It is my companion, the company I keep.

I suppose there are those who have no sense of humor and cannot develop one. But if you are reading this journal you are probably not one of them. So my advice is no matter what the situation, without losing sight of its serious nature, look for the humorous side. It's there.

We don't need stand up comics, who could be funnier than politicians? It's too bad they don't have my comic timing.

DB - The Vagabond
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WEEKEND CONTEST
Hitch up the teams.

What teams do the following letters represent?

1. A & C
2. B & B
3. G & S
4. GB & GA
5. L & H
6. LR & T
7. M & L
8. P & T
9. PP & M
10. RR & DE
11. R & M
12. W & F

good luck
DB