I Need a Remedy for Pain and Despair

Charlels Dickens could well be talking about today in his opening to A Tale of Two Cities:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

It may seem counterintuitive in times like these that what we need is a good laugh.

I sat in a writing webinar this week, listening to a children’s book agent describe what publishers wanted more of this year. “They want funny books, light-hearted stories that make children and adults laugh.”

My heart sank. I can write poems, tender stories, and research the strange lives and habits of undersea creatures. But please, don’t ask me to write a slapstick, funny picture book.

The agent was right. Laughter is good medicine. In Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient, Norman Cousins wrote about watching old Marx Brothers movies. The one-liners and slapstick humor made him laugh and helped ease his pain.

A fluffy gray and white dog peers through black iron bars of a window, against a red wall with green ivy. The dog looks curious and attentive.

I’m Trying to Smile!

I don’t need researchers to tell me that a little humor can make the doldrums go away or take the stress out of an over-anxious day. I have a video clip of my grandson where his infectious, unconrollable laughter saved me from myself when I felt the weight of responsibility and uncertainty. That clip became my secret, delightfully addictive personal remedy for the worst days.

I tried to come up with a few funny tips, but I must default to a practical list. No matter what, take time today to look for humor, remember a few silly family stories, or watch a movie, preferably a funny one.

I began with Twain’s dire description. Let’s counter that with one of the funniest first lines by Douglass Adams in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe:

The story so far: in the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

Just the title

A little wisdom

Artist Maira Kalman explains how to find humor in life’s absurdity. Her short talk is poignant and funny, like life itself. She ends with these words . . .

“As we say in our family, [while] doing almost everything in the strangeness of life, through the sorrows of life—live.”