I was sitting at my
computer contemplating what to write for a blog, when this popped into my head;
from my perspective, humor is society’s way of protecting themselves, only with
a smile. So what the heck, I thought
to myself, why am I really writing a blog? Well self, I said, I think you wanted
to go to a place where you felt important and where people just might listen
and be interested in what you have to say. (Now I was getting excited, so I
continued down this path.) Being a mother, wife and a boss hadn’t done that ...
and yet, wouldn't it be ironic if my blog yielded the most important commodity
being grown today, the elderly and the understanding that retired people are
still well, viable, and what if I had hundreds of followers? I promptly began to grin and laugh
hysterically at myself, and hence came up with this month’s blog topic, humor.
Why humor? Because I like people who make me laugh. I
honestly think it’s the thing I enjoy most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of
ills, and I am of the opinion it might just be one of the most important things
in a person. I realize that humor isn’t
for everyone; it’s only for people who want to have fun and enjoy life, and
feel alive. <Grin> On the serious
side of humor, I find some humor can be offensive, almost a form of bullying, like
the kind that is at the other person’s expense. There is really a thin line
that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.
So that was where my mind was going and
I thought to myself that I have been a bit too serious of late in my blogging, that
I needed to stop and smell the roses and get back to my core, finding the humor
in all things. Get back to observing my fellow retirees. I was certain I could find some humor
somewhere, as after all there are 3000 homes and almost twice that many people in
this community and to quote Dr. Seuss: “From
there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.”
As I attended one of my club meetings, I
promptly began to eavesdrop (I call it research), on one of the fellas talking
to a new resident. He proceeded to tell the
newbie all about the woes of being retired, then he threw out this zinger: you want to know the real trouble with retirement?
You never get a day off! Now that statement, my friends, I found hysterical. Why was it so funny to me, you ask? Well, let
me tell you that for me his statement really was true! I have been so busy during my first retirement
year it has just flown by. My calendar
is so full I long for a vacation to get things done. The good news, I found out
that it slows down here during the summer months, or at least that’s what I’m
told, because most of the clubs go dark due to vacations. Hmm, interesting thought, vacation. Seriously, when you are retired I feel you’re
permanently on vacation. Maybe instead
of vacation we should call them change of scenery trips?
Talk about coincidence, and then out of
the blue my son sent me a funny text while I was writing this blog, with a
picture of a dog holding a guitar. It
said: this one I wrote about licking my (expletive deleted) but it means butt. <Grin>
Reminding me that what is funny is different for everyone.
So back to the funny man in the club, of
course I couldn’t help laughing out loud, which he then realized gave him a
larger audience, so he spoke louder and began to rattle off some one-liners starting
with you know you’re retired if:
- You try to straighten out the wrinkles in your socks and discover you aren't wearing any.
- It takes two tries to get up from the couch.
- Your idea of a night out is sitting on the patio.
- You step off a curb and look down one more time to make sure the street is still there.
- Getting "lucky" means you remember where you left your car in the parking lot.
- Everything hurts, and what doesn't hurt, doesn't work.
- You have more hair in your ears and nose than on your head.
Ha ha, I knew if I
looked and listened hard enough I would find some humor. I should have known I could always count on
the old geezers, as it seems that women, as they grow older, rely more on
cosmetics, but as men grow older, they rely more on a sense of humor. <Grin>
So in my quest for humor anecdotes, I
decided we should go to the CC and see the Golf Comic. He was funny, but when
he started out my eyes crossed, as I didn’t get any of the golf jokes. However,
BFF hubby found them hysterical, so I found myself focusing on his laughter,
and the laughter of others around me, which in turn made me laugh. Well, the comic
finally went down a funny path for me, as he was Irish, and being an Irish
Catholic he went to parochial school. He
said, “When I was in school I wanted to be cool like the public school kids, they
even walked cool. But as I got older I figured out they could walk cool because
they didn’t carry any books,” ta dum dum, and so the next hour went.
I like humor, and therefore
I find myself gravitating to funny people. Humor has bailed me out of more tight
situations than I can list. I found that
if you go with your instincts and keep your humor, creativity follows along
with luck and success. I think God gave
us humor and imagination to compensate us for what we aren’t and to console us
for what we are, imperfect humans. <Grin>
I
asked one of the old geezers I seem to run into everywhere there is a large
gathering (the first time at a wine tasting), why he was always so funny, to
which he replied, not skipping a beat I might add, “Humor is perhaps a sense of
intellectual perspective; an awareness that some things are really important,
others not, and the two kinds are most oddly jumbled in our everyday lives.”
Wow, now that’s deep! No wonder he is a happy, healthy 92 years young, what a
brilliant statement and excellent attitude!
As we were leaving an event, I threw out, “So how
about President Obama being POTUS on Twitter.”
I wanted to see what they would say about Twitter, <Grin> to which
one of the men said, “We could certainly slow down aging if we had to run it by Congress.”
Then he said, “When you are dissatisfied
and long to return to your youth, think of algebra.” Say what?? It did make me laugh but I wondered
how he went there from the statement I made.
At this point I was really hoping that BFF hubby would be a while
getting the car, so I could listen to these two very funny men a little while longer.
All in all this was a very fun quest, I laughed a lot,
wrinkles be dammed! I learned a few new
things, like a new comeback for telling your age, I’m 33 with 33 years’
experience; to not let aging get you down, because it’s hard to get back up; and
just think, in dog years you would be dead. And my favorite quip was, don’t
worry about wrinkles dear, they are just antique smiles.
On that note I will leave you with my take away: Good humor
is a tonic for the mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and
depression. It attracts and keeps friends, and it is the direct route to
serenity and contentment. You may not be able to change a situation, but with
humor you can change your attitude about it.
I thank you again for taking this
retirement journey with me, or as I refer to it, “my longest coffee break." I'm just sayin’…
