While a good sense of humor cannot solve every one of our problems, it sure can help a person get through them.  I think that being able to laugh, in spite of what happens, can give one the chance to do more than simply survive the challenges we face on a daily basis.  When humor is present, it’s like having a friend at your side, ready to tackle life’s troubles with you.

It is difficult at best, to face the major traumas of our lives if we can’t find the lighter side of a situation.  I have observed and experienced the gathering of people who have just lost a loved one. People will begin to share their stories, and sooner or later, there will be one that is funny and everyone is able to smile or laugh at the memory.  Those memories will serve to soften the blows of grief.

One must have a sense of the ridiculous at times.  When my mother and I were stuck in a bathroom together, for many hours, we couldn’t stop laughing at the comedy of errors that had gotten us there.  Without our sense of the ridiculousness of our dilemma, we would have been miserable and hopeless. Instead, we got through it by laughing, (also praying, dancing and singing), and now we have a great story to tell for the rest of our lives.  If we had worried, it would have taken on a very different life of its own. Instead, we got through it and bonded more deeply.

Of course, it is always good to laugh on a daily basis.  I think we become better at it with practice. It seems to me, that if a person wanted to, making a list of funny things, such as movies, jokes, silly stories of our lives, (to name a few,) maybe we each could create an arsenal of good humor to attack our bad humor. They could then serve to be the “beneficial weapons” we turn to when sad or bad times come into our lives. Now, if that isn’t ridiculous terminology, I don’t know what is!