This I Believe

I believe in the power and importance of humor. There are very few things in life that I get more joy from than being able to brighten someone’s day a little bit, bring a smile to their face, or even coax a chuckle or two out of people. Humor and laughter is one thing that we have in common with every single human being on the face of the Earth, other than a few small details like we all breathe oxygen, we are roughly 75% water, and have a constant body temperature of 98 degrees.

At some point in everyone’s lives, we have all worked at some sort of job that was slightly less than desirable. For three consecutive summers, I worked at a summer camp in rural Illinois. It is hard work, no matter what job you have there; it is demanding on you physically, mentally, and emotionally. But some of my fondest memories of working at that camp come from gathering with the other summer staff either around the dinner table or in some other common area to talk. It was at these times that I would regale the staff with tales of my day, seemingly common place events with extraordinary twists. I tell these stories with much intensity: imitating people’s voices, acting out events, wild hand gestures, describing in excruciating detail the many layers of the story, telling the stories within a story, and the ever rising pitch of my voice that happens whenever I get excited.

One story that never fails to have people rolling on the ground laughing by the end is my adventure at the local car wash. I had driven to a local town one evening to pick up some things at Wal-Mart. I had decided to stop off at the car wash to clean my car and to vacuum out the inside. Now this car wash also happened to be a hang out spot for the local high schoolers when they were bored in the evenings. Because of the large number of kids hanging out there, there was a long line for the car wash. So as I was waiting there, I wound up waiting a good 20 minutes, I decided to just roll down my windows, turn up the radio, lean the seat back, and just zone out for a few minutes. The next thing I know, I feel my car bounce once. I look around and finally I look in my rear view mirror to see that someone had lifted his girlfriend onto the trunk of my car, and they had started to make out. There isn’t really any good way out of a situation like that, and given the time of night, I didn’t really want to have to get into a battle of wits with any of the townies, which is what we called the local populace. So I simply put my car in drive, and slowly started to pull away, until the girl jumped off of my car, and then I drove off.

Usually, whenever I would spin one of my tales, I would have my friends laughing so hard they would cry. But this brief synopsis doesn’t really reflect the potential humor waiting to be unleashed. Usually it would take me 10 minutes to tell the story: full of tangents, me bouncing around in my seat with fake fury, and a short rant about teenagers and hormones after the story. This never failed to delight and entertain friends. Having that happiness and laughter that you share with a friend being reflected back to you can put a bounce in anyone’s step, and make everything that has happened that day worth it. Laughter is the one thing that can start friendships, heal wounds, and make good first impressions. I believe in the power of humor.