Irony is My Life

I am a believer in irony and the role it has in shaping my life. Yes, I believe in irony, but in a type not popularly defined. As commonly observed, irony materializes when something “doesn’t work out” or when something seems “backwards.” It just so happens that, in my life, these seemingly negative qualities of irony establish an opposite tone; within me, irony reveals, teaches, and dominates, and without it, my world would be numb.

Without irony, my day would bring no laughter, my night no reflective frustrations. Irony reveals. I wouldn’t possess enough emotion to shape these intrinsic responses if I merely glided through my day, fully expecting and fully bringing to fruition the plans I’ve established for myself. The friction that irony instills in a day’s events isn’t so much a disruption as it is a necessity. Every “fml” moment I have (including the days I’ve straightened my hair minutes before a downpour and the times I’ve actually remembered money for snacks only to see it get swallowed up in the vending machine) turns into a revealing moment, as my plans fall in submission of greater ones…

Because my “human-ness” doesn’t want me to see my own errors, this recognition wouldn’t be possible without good old irony. Irony teaches. It has no problem emphasizing, highlighting, and underlining my weaknesses through impromptu instruction sections. I wait in a line at Target for five minutes, notice it’s lagging, and decide out of impatience to switch lines. Immediately, the pace in my former line quickens by about 300%, and I am left in yet another slow line. Oddly, the humor of the situation develops a sort of patience from exasperation. Irony teaches, but gently…

Beyond lingering upon my imperfections, irony holds a more imperative role in life. Irony dominates. When disaster strikes, it is there to remind us that disaster never prevails. When a baseball-sized mass was found in the lungs of my father, an ex-smoker, any amount of reason, logic, and probability would predict cancer. But that reason, logic, and probability was rejected when the mass was found to be benign and totally and completely unrelated to the inhalation of carcinogens. Irony overcame the odds and kept my father living…

Yes, I am a believer in irony; but maybe it’s just because my life is dependent upon it. I live in the power of Irony: the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the revealer, the teacher, the dominator of all. The savior who died for a sinner. How ironic.