Survival Skill

Deborah Beth Bryant-Pinterest

My dad taught me to laugh. He developed his strong sense of humor when he was a child. He fell off a horse when he was 3 years old, breaking his arm in three places. Back then, the doctors knew much less about how to set bones, particularly in young, growing toddlers. His left arm was much shorter than his right and the fingers of his hand curled in, making the hand essentially useless for normal tasks. He discovered that he could make other kids laugh, defusing their desire to bully him.

He loved all kinds of humor – jokes, stories, pranks, slapstick, puns – you name it. He developed it into an art form, starting as defense, but growing into a wonderful ability to see the humor in most situations rather than allow negativity room to grow. He laughed a lot and drove my brother and me crazy, always asking us, ‘What’s funny about that?’ when there was a joke mentioned.

For a time, my own sense of humor was a bit TOO well-developed. I had trouble accepting a compliment when one came my way. When my DAD said, “Nice dress,” HE was being sarcastic, meaning the skirt was too short. When someone ELSE said it, I tended to react the same way, immediately assuming something was wrong with what I was wearing.

When my dad’s health failed and he was taken to the hospital, he wrote on a napkin there, “Remember me laughing.”

And I do. He would tell elaborate stories, holding everyone around him in thrall, listening to his every word as he built toward the punch line. And HE would laugh, too – helplessly – to the point that, beyond whatever the joke or story was – we laughed watching HIM laugh, full of love for him.

Being able to stand back and see the humor in something really aggravating is one of my survival skills. It makes me able to SEE the aggravation for what it is, and how unimportant it is in the whole of life. It has saved my sweet husband’s bacon the whole time I’ve known and loved him (though I mention that I’m thinking of contracting a man with a backhoe to dig a hole in our back acreage that I can throw my husband in from time to time.) :0) One of the most wonderful things about our life together is how many times we laugh together over something.

soulmates-twinflames.tumblr.com

Doctors’ Bloopers 2

FamilyDoctor.org

I’ve told you that I spent 8 years doing medical transcription for a group of 8 really busy general surgeons. I was a ‘necessary evil” (exact quote) that they basically took for granted until I heard them say, “All you have to do is type what we say,” too often. The rotation of doctors in our office took two days. I spent two days doing my regular job, but also typing ‘what they actually said’ and printing it off. At the end of each day I printed off what they had actually said and left a copy on each doc’s desk.

At the end of the two days, the docs’ were laughing, but also begging me NOT to type what they SAID, but what they MEANT to say. At the end of my work there, I said my goodbyes and gave each doc a copy orf what I had kept over the years. Their copy showed who said what. I could hear the laughter all the way down both halls. It was a nice ending to a nice job.

Here are some more of the ‘bloopers’ than made me laugh out loud –

• “Both breasts are inverted.”
• “This lady goes out in the sun a lot, including her back and chest.”
• “This gentleman recently was remarried and has no significant complaints to his rectum”
• “She has returned to work and is eating eight hour days.”
• “This lady had a left breast biopsy when she was a freshman in high school, about four years ago. She has been pregnant since then, but not carried to term.”
• “The patient seemingly suffers from chronic abdominal discomfort associated with eating particularly bowel movements.”
• “She recently got a new pair of glasses, and the bridge of her nose rest on this.”
• “She will go to the Radiology Suite under ultrasound guidance.”
• “She states she has had a mammogram of her esophagus done at the Little Rock V.A.”

Times of India

Impossibilities, Plus

IMPOSSIBILITIES IN THE WORLD:

1) You can’t count your hair.
2) You can’t wash your eyes with soap.
3) You can’t breathe when your tongue is out.
Put your tongue back in your mouth, sure you can still breathe, you fool.

TEN (10) THINGS I KNOW ABOUT YOU:

1) You are reading this.
2) You are human.
3) You can’t say the letter ”P” without separating your lips.
4) You just attempted to do it . . . You idiot!  🙂
6) You are laughing at yourself.
7) You have a smile on your face and you skipped No. 5.
8) You just checked to see if there IS a No. 5.
9) You laugh at this because you are a fun-loving person — and everyone else does it, too.
10) You are probably going to send this to see who else falls for it.

Dying to Laugh 3

 

 

 

 

Dying to Laugh 2

 

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Dying to Laugh

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