One big game of Rumor
There is a lot of doomsday talk going around. Anxiety, worry, panic. Fear. It would be easy to slip into and, to tell the truth, has grabbed at my ankles a few times. But I don’t want to live in fear.
I am evaluating what is going on around me, but I get the definite impression that a lot of what is being said is like one big horrible game of Rumor. All of a sudden everyone is a fortune teller based on the latest news reports. News reports which are not carefully evaluated and have no goal other than to tickle people’s ears.
It would be one thing if I could just ignore the raging panic that has taken hold of so many. I have tried and had some success in cutting down on allowing hysteria into my daily life. But unless I cut myself off completely from the rest of the world, some of it affects me one way or another. I am fighting back with humor.
I don’t claim to be funny. However, I am looking for things to have a good belly laugh about. Some of it is dark humor, but dark humor can be healthy and cathartic in stressful times.
Here is where I am finding humor:
My animals. There is always something to laugh about when you have a pet. I have dogs, a cat, chickens, goats, and a horse. The neighbor has a donkey and if a donkey’s bray doesn’t make you laugh, you need to search your soul!
In music. I am choosing fun and happy songs. Songs that make me laugh or make me dance. Sometimes I am choosing to play my own instruments and do things like play The Baby Elephant Walk, by Henry Mancini, out on the front porch in hopes that it will make the neighbors smile.
Movies or shows. My most recent favorite was Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, rented on Amazon. It is a mix of ridiculous adventure so that there was no stress in wondering what was going to happen next. I have avoided real life drama since the deaths in my family in the last few years. Why would I want to watch something that makes me sad?
My projects. In a recent post I told you about a quiet book I finished. It truly made me smile. Then I smiled even more when I saw my grandson be excited to quickly find all the hidden frogs on the “4” page!
I always have a variety of projects going, partly because different times of day or other factors in the day make it easier to do one project than another. But I might also be a little crazy. So right now, I regularly choose from:
- Writing a book about how to make a quiet book
- My garden
- Writing my first sci-fi adventure, which you can sign up to learn more about here: laurablodgett.com
- Learning Chinese, which is where I got the title for this post. My latest Chinese blog is What to do in a Zombie Apocalypse. Since the English translation is there, too, you still might find it diverting. And you might decide to start learning Chinese! Also, it makes me smile that the podcast has had over 5000 downloads!
- Sewing the next grandchild’s birthday gift, but that has to stay a secret for now…
- My The Happy Homeschool Podcast, which conveniently had a post about humor in the queue. How Your Use of Humor Affects Your Relationship With Your Child. I got reminded of some fun memories while recording that. 🙂
Finding some room to breath
It has been helpful to find encouragement from others. Such encouragement is like a breath of fresh air. To be true encouragement it needs to be based on reality. A lot of what people are panicked about is conjecture.
Here are some things I have found that put things in perspective.:
Reading history can help put things in perspective. While his economic suggestions for “purifying science” are questionable, this speech by Michael Crichton does a good job of fleshing out that “the arrogance of the model-makers is breathtaking. There have been, in every century, scientists who say they know it all.” The attention grabbing title is Aliens Cause Global Warming. It’s on the long side and might be more fun if read with someone.
Here is a more recent and shorter article by Larry Reed about The Black Death. I almost didn’t read it, but it shows how the world has always been crazy and surely these people thought life would hardly be worth living again.
Reading things like this make it easier for me to laugh. Seriously, Monty Python was on to something making that scene about this very plague. Humor is good medicine and it is an important ingredient for life.
Now that I have laughed at the zombies again, I have to go take care of some seedlings and feed my animals for the evening. What will you do to make you smile?
