MY TWO CENTS:
In an article I read recently, the author was encouraging us to consider today’s struggle and stress in a different perspective. Everyone has them, albeit in varying degrees, and we all have a choice about how we respond and react to those struggles and stresses.
I heard a quote one time that said, “Tragedy plus time equals humor.” Now…I don’t buy into the idea that true life tragedies will ever be humorous. However, the context of the quote was in the minor “tragedies” that disrupt our agenda, our comfort, or our attention in the immediate term. Examples of those that routinely happen to me are when a fragment of my delicious lunch mysteriously attaches itself to my shirt just before a meeting, or when I step in a mud puddle with freshly shined shoes, or when my route to the office is detoured by construction, or when I scrape my knuckles on a door jamb.
Obviously, none of those examples are life changing. They do have the potential, though, to steal my joy for the moment, or the day, if I let them. If I fast forward a week, a month, a year, or five years, that particular “tragedy” in my life will likely provide a humorous story to myself and those to whom I routinely subject my stories.
The author of the article I read asked us why we need to wait a week, a month, a year, or five years before we find humor in the “tragedy” of the day. Why not decide to find the humor in that event in the moment it happens? I don’t know about you, but that is a challenge I think would be fun to accept!
I don’t intend to purposefully splatter my lunch, to seek out mud puddles, to hunt down construction zones, or to expose my knuckles to undue danger. I am, however, going to look to find some humor in today’s irritations. If we all embrace an approach like this, how much shorter can we make our tragic sulking so we can be ready to share positively with those around us? I don’t know the answer…but it’s going to be fun to try. Wanna join me in our laughter revolution?
Make it a great week!
Scott Cousino, CFP®
President