I am a big fan of using examples to explain things. You can tell me that something is a bad idea and I may or may not understand. If you tell me something is a bad idea and then you show me an example of someone doing that thing and the consequences that came from it I am more apt to understand that it was indeed a bad idea. I like to use humor as a way to deal with things. I am very rarely a serious person, I can be when I absolutely have to be, and I find that humor can be a good way to handle those awkward moments life sometimes throws at you. However, humor is not always the best way deal with a situation. I know this is an extreme example, but I think it is a pretty good one.

Today was not a good prosthetic day. I wore a thin sock today and about mid way through the day my leg started loosing suction. I had to go to the local big name retail store to buy a cable for work and as soon as I got out of the truck I knew it was going to be a long walk to the electronics section for my cable. With every step my prosthetic became slightly looser until each step I took resulted in that annoying soundI mentioned earlier. I felt like I needed to say “excuse me” after each step I took. On the way to the back I tried to step as lightly as I could to minimize the sound, but there was a point where it just became comical, at least to me. I was having an “I don’t care” kind of day to begin with, so I just continued with my walk of shame to the back of the store. Depending on my mood there are days when I would step into an aisle, and adjust my leg to try and stop the noise, but today just wasn’t one of those days. Some days, I just really don’t care if my leg is making noise or not and when it is I just have to laugh it off. There were times when I would pass someone and they would look at me funny, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I am sure there were a few people in the store today that probably thought I was a little crazy and had lost my manners to boot. Oh well, it amused me and made an otherwise boring trip to the store at least somewhat entertaining.

That was an example of humor making a situation bearable. Sometimes life is just funny and you have to laugh at it. Like I said before though, there are times when it is just not appropriate to laugh at things or to make jokes. I said this was an extreme example, but I think it does show that humor definitely has it’s time and place.

I will resist my urge to comment on the example I am going to use, because it deals with something I feel very strongly about and that is gun control. I do think it is a perfect example of when making jokes is not appropriate though. For whatever reason, Gilbert Arenas decided to bring firearms to his place of employment. In the process of doing this he broke his states gun laws and the policy of the NBA on firearms. As much as I try to steer away from being serious, anyone that knows me would tell you how true that is, even I know that humor should definitely be avoided in this case. I think in this case an appropriate response would have been to admit what you did was using incredibly poor judgement and try to express how sincere you were. Calling the commissioner mean, and using your “hand guns” to mimic shooting your team mates, probably not the best response on his part. There are just times in life when you can’t make jokes and you have to take things seriously, even I know this. I do, I swear! As much as humor can be used to diffuse a lot of situations you have to know where the line is and stay on the right side of it.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think about the subject!