Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Finding Humor?

Good advice by Pres. James Faust from an article in Ensign Mar 2000 entitled "Finding Balance in Our Lives"...

“Cultivating good humor may be helpful in finding our own identity. Young people who are trying to find out who they really are often have concerns as to their ability to meet and cope with the challenges that confront them and that lie ahead. They will find that it is easier to ride over the bumps and come quickly to their own identity if they cultivate the good humor that comes naturally. It is important that we all learn to laugh at ourselves.” 

I think what he is saying is to not take ourselves so seriously that we can’t step aside and look at any situation and find the humor in it and the real life lessons that can be learned. There is however, humor in the world that is borderline and sometimes negative or sick, that tears down and doesn’t build others. Under this category, I would put those remarks others make to tease, label, criticize or put down others for their own amusement. You know what I am talking about as you have probably been labeled once or twice in your life by some insensitive person. Hopefully, you haven’t been the one guilty of putting others down just to be entertaining. What do you think?

2 comments:

  1. My mom calls the negative humor "Roseanne Barr humor". I thought it summed it up quite well. This was a good reminder for me today. Thank you. A sense of humor is definitly a valuable commodity. We cherish it in others and should in ourselves.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have extremely witty children! A couple of them are worthy of their own comedy hours. I'm not going to say that they never laugh at others or that we don't poke a little fun at one another...and we all laugh. BUT, our rule was always that a person's qualities are fair game... a person'a shortcomings or anything that they feel sensitive about are strictly off limits.

    ie: Someone can make a joke about how slow their dad drives until he get's in or on any kind of fourwheeling machine. It's good to be a safe driver on the highway and an adventurer on a jeep trail...
    They could laugh at how many Santa Claus figures I own... they all LOVE the house at Christmas. BUT they can't make Wayne's shyness or my weight the object of a zinger. Those are sensitive areas.

    We can all laugh at ourselves... and do, often. We laugh with each other even more often. Laughter has been one of the things that has kept Wayne and I together through and over our rough times... He has a quick wit, and a world cup sense of humor. I don't think there have been more than a month's worth of days in our entire marriage that we haven't made each other laugh. It's a powerful force!!!

    I personally think it staves off illness. I can't prove it... but, I bet I'm right.

    Chandi's right though... I can't stand Roseanne Barr and Don Rickles brand of humor where every joke they make is at someone else's expense. I hated her program when she was so vitriolic towards her own children in the name of comedy. Cruel comments are NEVER funny to me.

    ReplyDelete