I am of the susceptible variety that upon reading, listening to, or overhearing some indulgence of sentiment or an insistence toward intimacy, love, levity, grace, and kindness, that I most often do feel myself wanting to embrace these intents. You know those various postings of âRelax your shoulders, drink some water,â absolutely have me dropping my shoulders back and refilling my cup of water. You know those various postings of, âYouâre more than enough now take a deep breath in and hold this for a six-count then exhale,â absolutely have me closing my eyes and letting my nostrils expunge some degree of anxiousness.
If I were to pour my dreams into these writings Iâd tell you that I long to make the world a kinder place, a place more capable of caring for each other. Laughter is one of the ways we can access kindness. It is a way to diffuse tensions, it is a way to force self-reflection without endangering, and laughter is a way of make comradery out of otherwise villainy. Not to say go out there and make your enemies your friends, but rather to say that should you be in a situation where, listen, it has been a long day, you have dealt with all type of assholes, and some new negative force arises to try and dampen you yet further (thee already-dampened), a burst of laughter, even if it is rather unhinged, instills possibility to a potentially hopeless situation. And who cares if youâre the only one laughing! And who cares if youâre the only one in a silent crowd making noise!
Each and every day I see people riding along busy, trafficked city-streets on electric-scooters and electric-bikes, motorized machines capable of going upwards of twenty-to-thirty miles-per-hour, fast enough to severely damage an unprotected bystander struck by one, I see these people riding in this unprotected fashion on sidewalks, bike lanes, or in the middle of the road, no helmets on, nothing but the fates protecting them, and theyâre on their phones not even looking at the road at whatâs ahead of them, one-hand controlling the mechanism. If these individuals can defy the natural instinct to protect oneselfâs vulnerability so brazenly so too can you laugh uproariously in an otherwise non-emotionally-committal space.
May this preface offer you the permission to laugh more, even if for a few moments. Here are the laughs I wish to share for this week.
Thereâs a video Iâve seen of a Dad being asked by his young children about whether theyâll also need glasses at some point. The Dad responds about having astigmatism. One of the young children retorts A stig ma balls in yourâ. It makes me laugh so much, every time itâs brought up, every time I try to show it to someone else or explain it. Iâm laughing now. People donât realize what type of linguistic imagination goes into finding ways to make a deez nuts or ma balls type joke. Itâs the same type of play with language, even if with a derogatory and childish crudeness to it, that poetry excels at. Such immense joy to see trends being picked up for people to have the opportunity to play around with language more like this.
At a poetry reading with Katie Prince and Ally Ang, beforehand meeting Katie briefly and mentioning my thorough love of bears, only to then listen to the poem pictured below, âThe moral of the story is bears arenât friends.â And just, I couldnât really help but to full goose-honk (or was it seal-cackle) throughout the poem. Sometimes I can hear when people react, laughing to my laugh. Sometimes I donât like it - laugh more individually! - and sometimes I find the spreading joy to be empowering.
I play Dungeons and Dragons. Have been playing with a group of now-friends but then-relative-strangers for almost five years. Weâre doing a short module-based campaign (which really is intended to last about a month, but weâve managed to trickle across almost six months now) called Spelljammer. Itâs basically space cadets, but with magic. Iâm playing a cute ooze sorcerer. We unintentionally triggered combat against the final boss of the campaign early with most of our party fairly split-up, so my character had to spend almost ten-turns of combat (which is a very long amount of time for being out of a fight) just running to catch-up to the fight. Once my character got there, I was able to use my final spell to teleport the boss onto a space rock in the middle of nowhere such that they were isolated and unable to do much of anything, only for my teammate to then use a laser cannon from a ship he was piloting to blow-up the big boss in classically cinematic, and exceptionally unexpected, fashion.
I struggle with insomnia. But when I posted about it earlier this week, dear and distant friend Nicholas assuaged my insomniac demons with a picture of a beanie baby â the Cody bear. Oh did I laugh so softly, unbelieving that it still existed within his domain.
Iâve started a treatment of Minoxidil because I have been losing my hair in the friar-fashion (bald spot in the center of my head, hair remaining in the front and sides). It bothers me because I like having hair, I want to perceive myself as a behaired & beautiful individual. Also, that I am exceptionally bodily hairy still feels like an additional punch-to-the-bruise. So, I was bewitched to try. I brought this up to my therapist whose first response was, âLet me just tell you this isnât the first time this has come up in this setting,â as she gestured to her office. Only for her to then continue by recommending a hair growth product that she has used and has had several close friends of hers use to dramatically enlivening effect. I mean, I trust her. But wouldnât you laugh too trying to detail that your therapist recommended you hair growth products?
Long distance bike rides along the shores of Lake Washington regularly and there is always a point in the ride where I am untethered, free in the wind, pedaling as hard as I desire and embodying speed-without-consequence. Well, the consequence is that the next hill is a fair bit harder. But hills are a consequence regardless of how well you prepare for them. If not, then Sisyphus would be something drastically different. An overcoming laugh, delighting as you overtake mortal boundaries.
Without trying to stan one journal overly, here are a few additional things Iâve enjoyed reading lately:
Thank you for reading, and tell me about your latest laughs.