Healing laughter

Amanda at Wittingshire has a great post on humor, with a follow-up post at The Common Room.

From Amanda:

I went from teaching college English to walking a messy, crying, colicky baby. I was in culture shock, and my mother and sister expected e-mail updates every day; I had no intention of becoming the downer in the family, so I learned to tell it funny.

First I learned that you can't tell it funny unless you really think it's funny--and that usually means being able to laugh at yourself. Then I learned that if you practice telling things funny long enough, they begin to be funny not just in retrospect, but as they're happening.

And that's worth something. Second only to faith in God, a sense of humor gets you through the day.

From The Common Room:

I am not going to tell you that through all the many trials and stresses of that horrible month we merely laughed laughed, joked, and amazed all who saw us by our poise and calm. We did do most of those things, but we did not do only those things. We cried, we despaired, we lamented, we made dumb, dumb, dumb mistakes, and we got cranky.

But we also laughed, even in the midst of banging our heads against the wall. We kept our faith.

Click the links above to read the full posts.

Blessed is he who can laugh at himself, for he shall never cease to be amused.