A sense of humor in a sad state of affairs

 

By 

 

Gene Fredericks

11/2018

 

I’ve often said to those who would listen that the last sense that I want to go is humor.  As I age and become decrepit and my senses go, my sense of smell, my hearing, and my sight, I hope the last sense to go is humor.  Once my humor goes, I am ready to be gone regardless of the other senses and any common sense that I might still have.  In fact, I think the first sense I’d like to lose is my common sense.  Some think I have already accomplished that, while others see me as more of a sage human than I see myself, and ask for my common, or uncommon, sense on all sorts of matters.  But then some make it clear that they did not ask for input, and my common sense is not needed.  They comprise most of the ones who feel my common sense has already gone.  

As I say, I want to go out with a guffaw!  But alas, we cannot pick the check out time and the last par rum pump rim shot as we leave them laughing.  The time of our passing, unless self-inflicted, is no laughing matter for us; it is a much bigger joke whose punch line is dictated by some spirit or force or whatever it is that is in charge of those afterlife matters.  In that case, I hope it is a one-liner and not a long drawn out painful wait for the end of the joke.  After all, timing is a big part of good humor.  To me, humorously seeing life is all-important, and the importance of life is meaningless unless we can laugh at life and ourselves.  I suppose it is up to each of us to determine what is and is not of value in our lives.  I have spent a lot of my time wondering about that, and I still have no conclusion.  

If life is taken deadly serious than the joys that it might offer could be lost.  I pity those who live the stoic life of self-deprivation and the righteous ones trying to hold onto the moral high ground at the cost of a good laugh.  Yet I cannot fault anyone for their belief and their need for it.  Obeying laws regardless of their merit and believing in a chosen deity that is not compatible with the other chosen deities seems shortsighted and certainly constricting to me.  I wonder if when they die will the joke will be on them.  I am not religious in the strict sense, yet I do have a strong belief in the need to live a good life.  

As I age and I see and hear and smell the world I live in, I seem to have more and more contempt for my fellow humans.  I wonder how long my sense of humor will last.