Usually, the two don’t mix. Funny and illness, what a joke. The sicker I got, the less funny I became. Truth be known, I was way too serious,
When I feel well, I live in my own little world and I think I am the funniest person I know.
When I was crazy wild ill for so many years, I lost my funny.
What THE heck is humorous about chronic illness????? Only our own silliness. H
Sincerely funny people (not me) might (or might not) have an edge on funny to help them get through chronic illness. You will have to let me know if I am right or wrong!!!!
I am assuming that a sincerely funny person can laugh their way through chronic illness better than I did.
I am assuming that laughing more at the insanely wild experiences of deep chronic illness is the best way to go.
About the best I did was this kind of boring funny…
I could see funny in the simple things but I could not create it. I had to see it in others. I missed out on some of the healing properties of laughter.
I see funny in this picture. This is an adult man and his father. To me, this makes me smile and appreciate that some have supportive caring people in their lives during illness. Doing illness with others in our lives makes all the difference in the world.
What does a person do without others to create any funny through this difficult experience??
We laugh anyway.
We laugh at ourselves and how silly we feel as we struggle through the mundane tasks of life that become monumentally tiresome. Taking a shower was so exhausting that I would find myself laying on the bathroom floor with the water running waiting for me to pull it together. Might as well laugh.
We laugh at ourselves as we catch the echo of our talking aloud – to NO ONE but ourselves. Every morning, for some absolutely no reason at all, I would catch myself at the kitchen sink talking aloud, all by myself. Totally ridiculous in my onion, so I learned to laugh at myself.
We laugh at comedians that tickle our funny bone in the loneliness of our confinement. We laugh so loud that we catch ourselves off-guard and laugh even harder at our own abandon.
There have been certain actors and comedians that simply crack me up and helped me laugh past the illness issues for the moment. Steve Martin is one of my favorites. Add Goldie Hawn and I am in heaven.
- Movie with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn ~ Housesitter
- Movie with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn ~ The Out-of-Towners
I watch those two movies every year, over and over again. They make me laugh out loud. Since I don’t get much laughter in my life, this is a good idea for my health. The more we laugh, the better our health.
Today I ran across this advertisement for Steve Martin’s Masterclass on how to be a comedian. It made me laugh. It made me think about all the smiles he has created for me over the decades of his career. He made me wonder about his perspective on comedy now that “should be” older and wiser. I wonder what comedy has brought to his life. Wonder if his comedic abilities have brought him relief in ways that are far beyond my abilities through all my seriousness.
I will never know, nor does it really matter. We all find our smiles and laughter in our own ways and on our own journeys. He made me smile today just by running across his advertisement. The memories of his, and many other favorites, through the years makes me smile.
Who makes you smile while you are chronically ill? Do you have friends and family that can make you smile? Do you make yourself laugh until you cry because of the silly things you do while you are ill?
Are you naturally a funny or are you a serious person? Have you learned to accept yourself, exactly like you are????
I sure hope so. When I think about all of you that I have encountered who are so ill and have found a smile and a laugh along the journey, you make me smile. Your laughter is contagious and I appreciate you.
My hope is that some of you find the comedian inside and use the chronic illness experience for entertainment of others. We certainly know there is some extremely funny material in the illness experience.
If you like Steve Martin like I do, here are some more of my favorite laughter movies.
- Movie with Steve Martin ~ Roxanne
- Movie with Steve Martin ~ The Jerk
- Movie with Steve Martin ~ Parenthood
- Movie with Steve Martin ~ Cheaper By The Dozen
- Movie with Steve Martin ~ Bringing Down The House
- Movie with Steve Martin ~ Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
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