WHAT NOW?
Wry Not?
Fen, our poodle-bichon who’s now maybe four or more, has, in his adulthood, acquired a wry way of looking at me. I say “wry,” because he knows I don’t always know all the answers. I especially didn’t have all the answers one hot Sunday in the park, when we stopped to watch a small group – men, women, young, old, in a circle, and, directed by a cheerful leader, each person taking a turn at, ummmm: laughing. One guy kinda snorted; a little lady tee-hee’d. A young man guffawed. An old lady hiccupped. Etc.
“What the hey…?” proclaimed the wry dog. Read the sign, I told him. “ ‘ Laughter Yoga’ – see?” Well, he didn’t see. Nor did I. I did think, tho, that these days, beset as we are by daily nation and world weariness, any reason to laugh – even if Fen and I didn’t actually see any Yoga going on – is a good thing.
My office is beset, too. Somewhere beneath the stacks are dozens of clips that I once imagined might lead to a laugh, or a semi-brilliant discourse, but now I realize––I’ve just got to get them…off my desk! Samples:
Item 1: Why I don’t make the Big Bucks: the serious – and probably well-paid advice from one paper’s “On the Job” section, called “10 Ways to be more active during the work day.” Get these: “Take the Stairs …” “Move Around the Office …” “Stand up and Stretch.” “Fidget while you Work.” Yawn. Thank me for not listing all 10.
Item 2: From “The Economist”: Freudian Slip: “You Can’t Always Get What You Want, “ Mr. Trump’s unfortunate choice of music by the “Stones, before introducing Mike Pence as his VP pick.”
Item 3: From Scott Adams’ “Dilbert” as the boss forgets to make a meeting agenda, and just goes for jargon: “Let’s do a deep dive in the big data and drill down until we hyperlocalize some disruptive technologies.”
Item 4: Identify the following: Bhumibol Adulyad, Maha Vajiralongkorn, Yingluck Shinawatra, Prayuth Chan-ocha and Thaksin Shinawatra.
Don’t despair: these are the names of some of Thailand’s political leaders. D’ you think whether, in Thailand, any correspond in simplicity to … John Doe?
Item 5: From Bobby Jindal, former governor of Louisiana, re Mr. Trump: “…you know why he hasn’t read the Bible? Because he’s not in it.”
Item 6: The chair that J. K. Rowling sat in while writing Harry Potter sold for $394,000 at auction. (Dear Readers, you can have mine – it swivels! – for $8.95. Cash.)
Item: 7: The Flip-Flopper: Kenneth Star quoted about former president Bill Clinton, whom he tried hard to bury: “Mr. Clinton is the most gifted politician of the baby boom generation. His genuine empathy … is clean…powerful…palpable…he genuinely cares.”
In an anthropomorphic frenzy, I tried to tell Fen that, however odd it seems, “Laughter Yoga” is a good thing – that I’d just google it and explain it to him. That we need the laugh. No, we need an ironic laugh. That’s better these days.
Category: Life Style, Local News
