I will let you in on a secret, humor is the weapon of the
unarmed person! I decided to share my
odd sense of humor in my attempt to relay my utter surprise at how different I
am from the people that surround me and why we are different, along with a few
personal experiences that occurred just this month, really, even I can’t make
this stuff up!
Here goes my ramblings: In my attempt to keep abreast of
what is going on in the community, I attend the monthly board meeting. OMG - I
am utterly dumfounded as to how their minds work, and what their lives must be
like. Then I reasoned with myself, they are so different from me, why I wonder?
I deduced they really must be space
aliens. Phew, I barely escaped with my sanity
intact, more convinced than ever their brains had been reprogrammed, which is why
they make mountains out of noodles, (Grin) and you thought they were just for
spaghetti. And playing balls with pickles seems to be a hot topic as well -see
aliens who now have lost sight of what is truly important in life on earth, or
perhaps weren’t programmed to know. Space Aliens who are out of touch with
reality. I left the meeting with a new
profound respect for the board members. I have the perfect gift for them – Poo-Pourri,
for all the $%@& they take from these space aliens. (Grin)
And well, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, I
find this appropriate.
As I was leaving the meeting I commented out loud, if I had
known that I would be surrounded by a concentration of so many Space Aliens I
might have thought twice about moving here. Little did I know that Retirement
communities are really a government conspiracy to keep them all of them confined in one
space. It is certainly a well-kept secret,
it seems only the local realtors know about it, but appear to be sworn to
secrecy as they don’t share this knowledge.
I now firmly believe this is where
the government has chosen to concentrate the Aliens, like in the movie Cocoon. I
mean the dictionary actually defines Space Aliens as an extraterrestrial being,
a visitor from outer space. Come on, you have to agree that is spot on and
helps to explain so many things about them.
Here is a little ode about some of
the males of the Alien species, who I shall refer to as Foxes. They gather at
the local watering hole to solve the world’s problems, or at least I think that
is what they are doing. Anyhow, I
digress, (what’s new). I walked into the
restaurant with my free-spirited, handsome teen grandson, (I’m sure he got this
from my hippie DNA, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it). His style
is today’s style, torn jeans, or as my daughter refers to them -
homeless clothes (Grin) and he loves pink, it’s his own personal insignia. Oh
yea, the best part for me, at this time he had pink hair. Breathe, we walked past the Alien Foxes in
their natural habitat. So the Alien Foxes apparently decided to right the
world’s wrongs and in unison, as if choreographed, all turned and glared at us
while commenting inaudibly, under their breath. It was a thing of beauty. It became perfectly clear to me that these
foxes are really lions and so I wondered where the courage is kept in Alien Foxes.
Or perhaps there was a glitch in their programming as this certainly fits the
definition to me of a bully - a person who uses strength or power to harm or intimidate
those who are weaker. Synonyms: persecutor, oppressor, tyrant, tormentor,
intimidator. Being the humans, and knowing how to behave in public, we chose to
ignore them and went about our business.
After this latest episode, I was struck with an-aha moment,
and was determined that I would have my own fun, to express myself like the
retired hippie I am. So, I had my
hairdresser, a young non-alien adult, highlight my hair with blue streaks, yep
I did that. Space: the final frontier.
These are the voyages of an earth woman in her exploration of the strange world
of retirement, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where
no woman has gone before in the quest to understand Aliens.
First test, I went to a club meeting, one of my favorite
groups of people. Some stared, and others ignored it, there was only one brave
soul who ventured to comment. She said, “I
like your hair.” “I said, “Well I am
going out kicking, doing what makes me happy. “
She replied with perhaps my new favorite response, which I shall now
plagiarize, with her infectious laugh, “Well you’ve got to do what makes you happy, after all
there is only one person in that box when they close the lid.” Brilliant, she is definitely not an Alien.
I then went into the lounge, and to my sad dismay, the Alien
Foxes of the species were not at the watering hole, so I was deprived of their
reactions. But not to worry, I wasn’t disappointed,
I did get a stare down from a couple who made it a point to turn in their
chairs and glare directly at me. It
looks as if this is an alien trait to do things in unison. I am certain this
must be how aliens in pairs express their displeasure. Perhaps they have been
programed to not speak, programmed to believe it’s better to let someone think
you an Idiot than to open your mouth and prove it. I think they call emoji’s “hieroglyphics.” (I
have no idea where that came from.) (Grin)
I decided to pursue this phenomenon, the loss of humor in
Space Aliens, with the experts, who advise that if one were to ask the male
Alien Foxes of the species why this is so, they would tell you that age is no
laughing matter. I wholeheartedly disagree; age is really something that
doesn’t matter, unless you are cheese. The experts tell us this Alien species
actually loses their sense of humor as they age. They say that perhaps as these
Aliens age, they have a decline in short term memory, abstract reasoning and
shifting between different trains of thought, which affects the ability to
understand humor. That must be it, a glitch in the programming.
It would also seem that these aliens may or may not respond
to a smile. It seems they have been programmed such that for them to interpret
a smile, there must be an upturn of the corners of the lips plus a wrinkling of
the crow’s feet at the corners of the eyes, or a pushing up of the cheeks. They
will then respond in the like, if it was translated correctly.
Here is this blogger’s take away whilst living
amongst extraterrestrials: Does our sense of humor really change as we get old?
We all know crabby, humorless, old people ... (or as I refer to them Space
Aliens) but my question remains - did they age into that (or were merely
programmed that way) ... or were they once Debby Downers - crabby, humorless young
people/Aliens. I'm just not sure that
sense of humor is a generational/alien
thing. I’ll
give them the benefit of the doubt and believe
that different A
liens simply laugh at different things. Or as
the experts say, perhaps successful comprehension of humor only occurs when
resolving something that is seemingly incongruous with a logical but less
obvious explanation. Such as the joke - call me a doctor - ok you’re a
doctor. Let me tell you the Space
Aliens in my community have made a believer out of me, yep they have convinced
me, Aliens are most definitely living among us.
What did I learn….hmm perhaps there are many unhappy Aliens in my community, but
I refuse to be abducted and brainwashed by them. Why not, you ask? Because for me laughter is the best medicine
for the mind and soul. Laughter is a
powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. Nothing works faster or more
dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh.
Humor lightens your burdens, inspires hopes, connects you to others, and keeps
you grounded, focused, and alert. It also helps you to release anger and be
more forgiving. Laughter may even make you live longer. I, unlike the aliens, will laugh at myself and
at life. Not in the spirit of disdain or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a
miracle drug, that will ease pain, cure depression, and help me to put in
perspective that seemingly terrible defeat and worry, and meet it head on with
laughter at life’s predicaments, and most importantly, I vow to never take
myself too seriously! I say we slip a
good dose of humor into the drinking water, hey it can’t hurt.
And as Mark Twain so eloquently said, “Laughter without a
tinge of philosophy is but a sneeze of humor. Genuine humor is replete with
wisdom.”
And lastly remember, don’t take life too seriously; no one
ever gets out of it alive. And on that
note I leave you with my personal mantra. Grant me the
senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run
into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.
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’….