HUG Corner: Thought for the Week – 4/8

April 8, 2019

Healing After Loss (Martha Whitmore Hickman)

“Because humor brings us back to earth, it helps us to use well what is left to use, even when we are keenly aware of what we have lost or been denied. Only those who know how to weep can also laugh heartily.”

– Kathleen R. Fischer

We are all familiar with those two line drawings for the theater: the comic face, the tragic face. We know well that both comedy and tragedy are part of human life. 

We hear the phrase “comic relief” – unexpected humor when the situation seems grim.

How does all this come to us when we are in the throes of our own grief?

At first it may seem that nothing can ever be funny again. Then we may find to our surprise that we are more appreciative of humor, not less, than those who are presently untouched by grief.

Are we startled? Do we think it “unseemly” – this laughter that erupts from us in the midst of sadness?

But when we are down, comic relief is most needed – as a starving person craves food more than one who is well fed. Our laughter is a safety valve against being inundated by grief, a vote of confidence that we won’t be floored by this event, sad though we may be.

Sometimes laughter is the best medicine.

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