Find Humor
MEDICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH UPDATE
For me, potty humor never gets old. Maybe it’s because I have brothers—or kids.
Maybe it’s because in my mind I’m still 7 years old. Maybe it’s because I own a few toilets and chuckle when someone farts.
I think we can agree that laughter is the best medicine.
So last night was a treat! I got to interview the famous Alexandra Petri whose signature political satire is food for the soul. Her Washington Post column has gone viral. Her new book Nothing is Wrong and Here is Why is clever and smart. And she herself is a DELIGHT.
Alexandra and I agree that humor is an essential part of daily life. If you can’t find things to make you laugh, what’s the point?
Humor heals. As a physician, I’ve found that a touch of (appropriate and well-timed) levity can go a long way toward easing pain and suffering. I sometimes cry and often laugh with my patients (sometimes in the same conversation).
Of course, humor can also do harm. It can be used as a weapon—to tease, demean, or bully. Humor can also mask deep suffering. It can serve as body armor to deflect attention from pain and disease.
But when it’s smart, thoughtful, and well-intended, humor can add life to an otherwise dull conversation, softness to a harsh reality, and depth to a relationship. It can also ruin a perfectly good blouse if you spit your drink out laughing!
Personally, I most appreciate the kind of humor that’s honest and unpretentious. I also really love slapstick and satire like the movies Airplane and The Naked Gun. Or Kate McKinnon’s “Close Encounters” sketch for SNL. Or Sarah Cooper’s lip syncs.
Right now it’s easy to feel hopeless, joyless, and exhausted. Our tanks are low on gas, our reserves depleted. As the virus surges without a clear endpoint, many of us are wondering how we’ll get through.
One way to shore up energy and emotional provisions for the winter (heck, the days) ahead?
Find humor in your everyday life. Do something silly. Laugh at yourself. Seek out comedy in books, movies, and art. Find funny people to be around. And by golly, avoid the Debbie Downers, Negative Nancys, Apocalyptic Arthurs (I made that one up for gender parity). Seriously, stay away from people who spew doom and gloom. Or perhaps more generously: gently suggest they seek professional help—and THEN take 10 giant steps away from them.
There is WAY too much to be hopeful about to sit around hand wringing, especially when you could be hand washing instead. (Why waste time fretting when you could be sanitizing?)
After all, we WILL get a safe and effective vaccine. We WILL get medicines to treat early COVID-19 and prevent hospitalization. We WILL get widespread and better testing. We WILL learn from our (massive) mistakes and move forward. We WILL look back on this moment in history and think a) wow, I can’t believe I got through that, b) I’m so grateful to have my life back, and c) I should have invested in more home hair dye.
So here is your HOMEWORK for the weekend: send me something funny. A story, a joke, a meme. And keep it PG-rated. Reply to this email! And whoever comes up with the best (short) bit of hilarity will receive something good in return. (I don’t know what it is yet, but it will be GOOD.) Get creative, people!!
I will check in next week. Until then, be well.
WITH LOVE,
Lucy Martin McBride, MD
P.S. Looking for holiday/travel/Thanksgiving advice? You can read my blog from Monday. And if you missed my live Q & A turkey talk with Dr. Ackerly, you can click HERE.