Get "Old School" With It!

National Humor Month is almost behind us and I hope yours was filled with numerous reaffirmations of how humor, laughter, play, and just learning to "lighten up" can help you cope with the stressors that life throws at you.  Sometimes, we can be so close to an issue that it is difficult to see past it.  Adding some humor to your life can lift you up above your problems so that you can get the perspective you need. 

  In March of 2003, I was serving as the Commanding Officer of the Naval Reserve Center in Wichita, KS (Navy in Kansas!?  Who knew!?).  That month was a tough month for our Navy personnel.  The United States had just gone to war with Iraq, and the reserve center had many people that were receiving quick notifications for call to duty.  In most instances (at that time), reserve personnel were getting 3-5 days notice that they were to be deployed.  At that time, not only was I in the Navy serving, but my wife was also a Naval Reservist.

March 25, 2003 was a day that I should have stayed in bed.  On the way to work, my motorcycle broke down in the middle of a very busy intersection of town.  As I pushed it to the center island, not one of Wichita's friendly residents stopped to help.  Luckily, I was able to do a quick fix and ride the bike the rest of the way to work.  When I arrived at work and took off my helmet, my glasses went flying across the parking lot.  As I retrieved them, I thought, "Today is the day that Lara (my stay-at-home wife) is going to be mobilized."  Sure enough, after I fired up my computer and checked my email, there was the notification-she had 5 days to report.  Could my day get any better?!   Not only was my best friend going to a foreign country, I was about to become the single parent of 4 children ages 11, 9, 6, and 4!  

After Lara left, I rapidly slipped into a depression.  It wasn't that I couldn't handle all the things that needed to be done-working a full-time job, laundry, cooking, cleaning, paying the bills, running kids to and fro, etc.  I, like many, can bring home the bacon AND fry it up in a pan (so to speak).  It was that my best friend was physically gone--the one person who could lighten my day with just her presence.  We had always known that Lara's mobilization was a possibility, but I was not mentally prepared for it and, consequently, didn't handle it very well at all.  To conserve the little energy I had, I spent most days in my office with the light off in a semi-vegetative state.  In thirty days:  I couldn't eat; I couldn't sleep; and I lost nearly 30 pounds (on the plus side, up until that time in my adult life, I don't think I had every had a 29 inch waist). 

  After a month, I decided that I needed a break.  I took an afternoon off and went to see the movie, "Old School."  Anyone who has ever seen this movie will tell you that, yes, it is quite possibly one of the dumbest movies ever made.  But it made me laugh.  I laughed so hard I cried which jolted me out of my vegetative state.  The cloud that I had been living under for the past month was gone.  That laugh lifted me up - I saw (clearly for the first time in thirty days) how my attitude was impacting every facet of my life and that the pity party I had been throwing wasn't benefiting anyone - including me!  For the rest of that deployment and since, when times get tough, I get funny.  I put some HumorACTION!™ in my life - the application of humor, laughter and play to help me get some perspective.

  Granted, this wasn't a very funny story.  As a matter of fact, it is kind of sappy.  It's all about a guy who loves a girl and then mopes when she leaves.  It's no "When Harry Met Sally," but it is my story - about how humor helped me cope and how a movie brought me back to  life.

When the going gets tough, the tough get funny.  Laugh it up!

Keep Leading, Laughing, and Connecting,
Chip