The Importance of Humor

When I go for a long walk or run, I’ve taken to playing podcasts instead of music. My last post mentioned that I am about to be laid off, and that I am still looking for my next job. Needless to say, it’s been stressful.

As I was applying sunscreen in preparation for a walk, I started to scan the list of unplayed episodes in my podcast app. According to their website, one of my favorite podcast, On Being, seeks to open up the animating questions at the center of human life. I find the episodes both curious and insightful, which are two things I value in life.

I was a bit behind in my listening, but one of the episodes entitled “Humor as a Tool for Survival” caught my eye. The description read:

“Humor lifts us up but it also underscores what’s already great; it connects us with others and also brings us home to ourselves. And like everything meaningful, it’s complex and nuanced — it can be fortifying or damaging, depending on how we wield it. But as a tool for survival, humor is elemental. We explore this idea with a rabbi who started out in drag, comedians, an NPR host, writers of sci-fi/fantasy, social commentary, and the TV show Veep.”

It sounded interesting especially since I would describe myself as a fairly serious person. I like to laugh and watch shows and movies in the comedy genre, but I wouldn’t say I look at situations in my life through the lens of humor.

As I listened to the episode, I heard a similar message time and time again. Each interviewee shared a story of hardship or a situation that felt difficult and explained how they were able to apply humor within that scenario.

For me, they were stories of strength. One interviewee, Daniel José Older, a writer who also served as a paramedic in New York City, talked about how impossible being an EMT would be without humor. He explained that humor kept him from mourning every life lost on the job and being all consumed by grief.

Hearing him speak about humor in this way made a lot of sense to me. It was a tool for keeping on, for not getting completely lost in the emotional reaction, of being able to understand that yes, death is unfortunate and painful, but it is part of life.

The most grounding advice I’ve received about being laid off is that everyone goes through the loss of a job at some point or another in their lives. They may get fired or laid off with no notice (gratefully, I have had a lot of notice). It’s scary and painful, but it’s not the end of the world. In fact, the world is still going to go on with me in it.

After finishing my walk, I was in the kitchen getting some water. I was obviously inspired by this episode and thought about the humor in my situation. Suddenly, I was laughing at the thought of going through a break up, surgery, a cancer diagnosis, two rounds of radioactivity treatments, depression and a lay off all in the span of 1 year and 10 months. That’s a lot to handle in a relatively short period of time.

So I laughed hard for a moment, then continued my day feeling like I’d gained a more humorous sense of perspective.

 

 

 

 

---