Find your funny bone

Idon’t have all of the answers to the world’s problems; in fact, I don’t have all of the answers to my children’s problems which are relatively small in the grand scheme of things. It’s a big scary world and it gets more and more complicated every day.

But I do have one suggestion that I think would help all of us: find your funny bone.

Seriously. Let’s quit taking things so seriously.

I don’t want anyone to ever accuse me of being a Readers Digest columnist, but a good laugh really does cure most of what ails you.

Here’s my approach to most things: whatever troubling time you’re going through isn’t going to stop happening because you refuse to find anything funny while you’re going through it. Life isn’t always easy, but it sure is harder if you can’t laugh.

For instance, my kids are at a very dramatic stage. Every time a Lego set breaks or it’s too hot to play outside our home is filled with choruses of, “This is the worst thing that has ever happened!” I could choose to get irritated at such hysterics, but that’s not going to squash our budding theater enthusiasts from pursuing melodrama.

You know what makes the drama stop? Silly noises. Questions like, “The worst thing? Is this worse than a squid swimming in the creek next to our house and eating our dog? Is it worse than a black hole opening and sucking every Lego on the planet into outer space?” They act annoyed at first, and then you just ramp up the ridiculousness of the questions. In short order they’re adding to it. Before long they’re trying to one up the questions.

“Is it worse than a T-Rex hatching out of the eggs in the fridge and eating everything in there?” You know what would be worse than all of those things? Not being able to laugh at them; I’m not sure I’d want to live in a world where we didn’t laugh in hard times.

It may not be the best medicine, but it’s certainly a better band-aid than anything else I know.