Mark Twain coined the adage: “I can live two months on a good compliment.” A variation of that sentiment for me might be: “I can live all week on a good laugh.” Whenever something silly makes me laugh, reprocessing the moment makes me smile over and over and over. In other words, I can get a lot of mileage from a little goofy humor.
And, as you will see from two incidents last Saturday that I’m still laughing about, quality is not essential either. Sometimes the dumber, the better (or funnier).
The first comment was expressed in a panic by Brent when he was working by the pool and suddenly yelled to Paige and I that someone had stolen our pool chairs. The sense of urgency and frustration in his voice worried Paige and she rushed outside. I was concerned too. But not about the pool chairs. They were safe and sound at the Patio Furniture Restoration warehouse getting recovered.
No, my concern was for Brent who had simply forgotten he had ordered new covers for the chairs, picked up those covers, and even talked to me on the phone when I had to make multiple trips to drop the chairs off. When I headed outside and helped jog Brent’s memory of the chairs whereabouts we all had a good laugh!
Shortly after we solved the disappearance of the patio chairs Paige was getting ready for an outing to the Gilroy Garlic Festival. I noted the rising temperature and mentioned how hot it would be in Gilroy. Paige looked at me, somewhat confused and said something like, “You’re right, do you think I should wear less?”
“Wear less?” I repeated Paige’s question a bit confused as I noted her very short linen shorts and thin t-shirt. “What less could you possibly wear?”
Paige took inventory of her outfit and we both started laughing because there wasn’t much less she could be wearing as it stood. Although I’m sure you do see less with some skanky attire from the rougher side of town that frequents the Gilroy Garlic Festival. But, for Paige’s dress standards, there wasn’t much less she could possibly wear lest she join the sleazier crowd.
Now I just have to think “someone stole our pool chairs” or “should I wear less?” to keep me laughing. And I’m not laughing at my family, just with them, and as you can see, it doesn’t even have to be all that funny for me to find humor in simple daily occurrences.
“What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.” -Yiddish proverb
