A Sense of Humor

A sense of humor

"O would some power the giftie gie us,
To see ourselves as others see us."

These lines come from a poem written, oddly enough, to a louse (flea). Robert Burns, the great Scottish poet, was standing in a church one Sunday morning and a haughty, proud young woman was standing in the row in front of him. He saw a flea crawl up the collar of her coat, something that would have been cause for shame in the society in which they lived, a sign of uncleanness. But the woman still stood there, unaware of how she appeared to others, hence the immortal lines.

Most people find it very difficult to see themselves with any clarity and they readily believe all sorts of things that do not stand up to objective scrutiny.

90% of all humor, is either laughing at the misfortune of others or laughing at oneself. Developing a sense of humor is a great asset, being able to laugh at oneself is helpful in seeing oneself with a objective view.

Check it out, when you lose your sense of humor, I am willing to bet that in that moment, you have lost all sense of proportion and objectivity.

"And wisdom is a butterfly, and not a gloomy bird of prey."
W.B. Yeats

Someone asked, how can I develop a sense of humor? I'd love to know their thoughts on the subject, but at his or her request, for they wrote anonymously, here are some thoughts.

People tend to lose their sense of humor when they are stressed, or when they take themselves or life too seriously. The old saying, "Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone," is true.

Bill Shankly, the legendary manager of Liverpool Football Club, was once asked by a journalist if a forthcoming match was a matter of life and death. He said, "No, it's much more important than that." I once saw graffiti in a a depressing, poor part of Protestant Belfast. It said "No Pope Here". Someone had scrawled underneath, "Lucky old Pope."

But a sense of humor cannot be forced, otherwise to comes across as artificial, 'trying too hard'. It has to be felt from within. It can be macabre, black humor, or completely innocent - the latter being my favorite.

To develop a sense of humor, look around at what you yourself find funny, and try to see evidence of it in your everyday life. I have always found pomposity funny, and one sees it all too often in one's day to day life.

It is said that there are only two certainties in life, one, that you will die, and two, that you will pay taxes.

That being so, and given there is so much misery in the world, most of it created by human beings, why not look for the amusing in life, for it makes it bearable and uplifts others too when you share it.