O' Ye Of Little Or No Humor

Some people are full of themselves, where everything in life is just so serious. There are most certainly serious issues that need to be dealt with, but some issues are just more in individuals' minds, and some people are so insecure, their heightened sensitivities take offense at anything and everything. Others seem to look for issues to make themselves feel important; at least, I guess that's the reason. They wake up each day and seem to say to themselves, "Let's see, what can I be offended by today? I'll find something," and they then proceed to do just that, no matter how much of a stretch to find an issue or how silly the subject. The totally no shame conservative slant of Fox News and then the decision by MSNBC to become the no shame liberal "anti-Fox News," shows some of the silliness of political issues scrounged up, just to have something to bash the other side with, and to keep their respective "faithful" watching. I watch neither.

I suppose all of us have had our days where we get testy or peeved, or hurt over some fun directed our way; fun never meant to do us harm. Illness, a personal or family crisis, or some other issue may make us hyper sensitive at times, but we're all entitled to our bad days. Then there are those who seem to make a profession out of being offended. They are offended so often, they really seem to have forgotten the object of trying to persuade others to their side of any given issue, since they seem to get a "lift" from being offended, not from winning an argument. No, their whole purpose in life seems to center around being offended and some have the practice down to an art form. I have acquaintances who are VERY serious about everything. To the one, life is very serious. To the other, he tends to see racism and bigotry in everything. He's so obsessed with racism, he fails to realize how some of his accusations against others are downright racist. It seems to me, he's stuck in the 1960s and 1970s, still clinging to the bitterness of those times, and refusing to acknowledge any of the progress since those days. He's virtually humorless. Tell him just about ANY joke or story, and he's apt to find some racist intention in it. He's even offended by shows or articles meant to point out racism and bigotry. I just can't imagine living life like that.

We all have varying degrees of sensitivity, but we really need to be able to laugh at ourselves on occasion. Comedy makes fun of all sorts of things, but mainly people, because we ARE funny in some of our actions and statements. If people whose feathers are easily ruffled get their way, comedy will be suffocated. Jokers, including myself, do cross the line at times, but I'd say most of it is unintended. Jackie Mason and Joan Rivers got into lots of trouble over the years with some of their jabbing humor, but comedy pushes the envelope and expands freedom, it doesn't contract it, like some seem to want to do.* To my overly sensitive friends, take a deep breath and think of something funny about yourself. Don't be afraid to let out a laugh, even if other people give you serious looks. Let them be the serious ones. Relax and laugh. Besides, who gives a damn what they think? Ha! Ha! Ha!

* Generally speaking, these are not always "freedom of speech" issues, a concept lost on many Americans. "Freedom of Speech" only concerns government restrictions on speech; that is, government at any level, not just federal. If you work for company "XYZ," run by Mr. SOB, if you call him "Mr. SOB" or "the SOB," he can fire you and it's all very legal, as you are not protected by the constitutional right to free speech in this case.

WORD HISTORY:
Humo(u)r-The modern meaning of this word may seem strange, seeing that it goes back to Indo European "wegw/ugw," which had the notion of "wet, moist." This gave Italic/Latin "umere," which meant ''to be wet." This then produced Latin "umor," which meant "fluid, body fluid, moisture." This gave Old French, a heavily Latin based language, "humor" (later "humour"). The idea of "body liquids'' was used by science of long ago as a gauge of a person's "disposition, state of mind," and this meaning became attached to the word too, and it was with this meaning that it was borrowed into English during the 1300s, with the "bodily fluid' meaning being pretty much confined to science and not widespread among the general public. The idea of ''state of mind" altered in the late 1600s to the more specific "something that amuses one, makes something seem funny,'' a meaning retained into the present. English speakers must say "sense of humor" to convey the meaning of a person's ability to see things as funny. Its close relative, "humid," still retains the strong tie to the "moisture" meaning. "Humor" is the American spelling, "humour" the British spelling.