The Importance of a Good Sense of Humor

You’ve probably heard the saying, “laughter is the best medicine.” My experience has taught me that this is one of the wisest pieces of advice. A study done at the Mayo Clinic showed that laughter is one of the best ways to relieve stress and puts us in a better overall frame of mind.

The funniest things to me are the humor which I find in human nature rather than watching a stand-up comic perform—although some comedians base much of their act on this concept.

When I was still teaching elementary school, I found that laughing about some of the absurdities of the job was a healthy way to handle the ridiculousness of a situation. How could I ever forget the time when one of my students smuggled a garter snake on a field trip without my knowledge? The only reason I found out about it was that the snake decided to make an appearance at the museum and scared a poor lady half to death. Of course, I wasn’t exactly happy with my student, but I also found myself laughing when I retold the story to my colleagues.

Then there was the memorable time when a student’s parent showed up uninvited to my classroom during the middle of class to do a chemistry exhibition. Not only had the nervy adult bypassed the office, a requirement of any person on a school campus, but she expected me to drop everything for her demonstration. After recovering from the shock that anyone could be that brazen, I told her that she was not allowed to hijack my class. I suppose I could have responded with anger, but the whole situation was far too bizarre for that. Laughing about the entire thing later with a friend was a better solution.

Part of having a good sense of humor is being able to laugh at yourself. Aren’t we all guilty of doing things that humble us? Last month I had one of those moments that is too priceless not to share.

One of the challenges of being a homeowner is we must be able to deal with the unexpected expenses that inevitably occur. Six weeks ago, my wife and I began to hear what appeared to be the rattling of the water pipes under the house. In the beginning, the noises seemed to happen at intermittent times. Sometimes we didn’t hear it for several days.

When the sound resumed, and with greater frequency, I decided to do some research before calling a plumber. After searching on my computer, I learned that this occurrence is quite common. The articles I read indicated that most of the time, the problem was a minor fix, but it also could be a symptom of a more severe situation.

The next time it happened, I decided to play detective and see if I could figure out what was going on. I crawled under the house (something that is getting a little harder to do with age) to investigate. By the time I was scurrying around like a mole, the noise had stopped. There were no signs of a leak or other apparent problems.

After a few more days of silence, a new pattern developed. The metallic sound started up every morning around 6:30, while we were still in bed. The other curious thing was the noise now appeared to be coming from somewhere in the backyard rather than under the house.

By now, I was baffled but determined to discover what was going on. The following morning the noise came back right on time again. I got out of bed, went out the back door as quietly as possible, and tried to track the sound. Sure enough, my hearing was correct—the pipe rattling was no longer coming from under the house.

I tracked my prey the way a mountain lion pursues its next meal. I tried to be as silent as possible because I was concentrating on the location of the noise. The other problem was our two yellow labs. (They spend the night in our three-car garage which has a dog door to their pen). If they heard me lurking about, they would most likely start barking.

I followed the noise to our back gate at which point it stopped. Okay, what gives? Just then, one of our neighbors drove down the alleyway between our properties as he was going to work. I’m sure that I was quite the sight standing there in my pajamas with a mop of disheveled hair. He stopped his truck, and I explained that I wasn’t losing my marbles. He said that he was unaware of any noise, but he would keep his eyes and ears open. (By the way, how do you keep your ears open?)

By now, I was fully invested and determined to figure out what was happening. I went back into the house and reported my findings to the other detective (my wife) assigned to the case.

The following morning the noise started again at precisely 6:30. I shot out of bed like a cannon ready to get to the bottom of this mystery. I went out to the back gate again and heard the metal sound coming from the top of a nearby telephone pole.

As I looked up trying to identify the source of the sound, a bird swooped down from the pole and landed on the neighbor’s roof. I didn’t think the bird was the culprit, but then the little bugger gave himself away. He tapped his bill rapidly against the small metallic satellite dish atop the neighbor’s roof. As soon as it struck the object, I recognized the familiar sound. I had found the mischievous scoundrel.

What else could I do at that point but laugh at my stupidity? I got all worked up over nothing. That bird got the best of me, and I felt embarrassed for not figuring out what happened sooner.

In retrospect, there was no need to be too hard on myself. My previous experiences with woodpeckers involved watching them drill into trees in search of insects. That was a much different sound. I could only deduce that the noise, which appeared to be coming from under the house, was the vibration from the metal vents that run vertically from the roof.

I’m sure this won’t be the last time I am forced to laugh at my gullibility as life provides us with so many opportunities. Instead of being privately embarrassed about it, I’m hoping that you get a chuckle and can also laugh at yourself from time to time. Maybe we can bring a little more laughter and joy to a sometimes troubled world with a good sense of humor