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“Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.” ~ Elbert Hubbard
“A man isn’t poor if he can still laugh.” ~ Raymond Hitchcock
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Life is not worth living if you cannot find humour in something that has happened. It is a waste of energy to focus on the bad. Complain too much and you will lose your friends. “Misery loves company”, but there is a lot more fun to be had sharing a good laugh.
I get asked how I can laugh when something so awful has happened. What else should I do? Frustration and anger will not help matters. Cursing bad luck won’t make it better either. I might as well laugh, shrug it off and move on.
Breaking my arm in 2008 is a classic example. I have brittle bones and fell out of my wheelchair, breaking my arm. It’s not a laughing matter, but I made jokes about it anyway. “I’m learning to fly, but I ain’t got wings,” sings Tom Petty. My wheelchair hit a hole in the dirt and stopped dead. For a brief second, I was airborne, before gravity brought me back down to earth with a thud. I made loads of jokes, about eating dirt and losing my leftovers, which had been in a box in my lap, and anything else I could think of. It made for great story telling.
More recently, I had a chat with a new friend from America, Roger. He was curious to know all about my disability and living with brittle bones. The conversation drifted on to it affecting my height because of the bones being curved, and then on to disabilities in general and how he took care not to make fun of people with disabilities. In particular, he mentioned short people. I told him that it was very hard to offend me. How can I laugh at other people if I cannot laugh at myself?
I know that some jokes are distasteful and downright rude but that does not mean that you should take offense at every joke that yo hear. Smile. Laugh. Make the most of the life you have, because you only live it once. So, enjoy it while it lasts.
A short fight
(These pictures were all received via e-mail, so I have no idea where they came from)
It's my life ... 