You are what you read...

I have a friend who recently sent me an email, with a bunch of "Maxine" comics in it. I am not sure if you know "Maxine," but she's a very mean-spirited old lady invented by Hallmark, who has lots to say about lots of things, none of them "nice," but (as my friend said in her cover email), "wickedly funny."

I have to say this....I didn't find them "wickedly funny." I found them mean-spirited and toxic. And it made me start to think about humor, gossip, and all that jazz.

I sent an email back to the friend that sent them to me, asking her if she "really" found these funny. I went on to say that I thought that they were pretty mean-spirited, and that this is the exact sort of thing that leads one down the "garden path" away from joyful thoughts -- away from "uplifted-ness," which is something that I really aspire to, and would like to help others to aspire to.

I got back a very very long email (I guess I should have seen it coming), going on and on and ON about how hard her life is, about how this is just a "way to blow of steam," about how "if I can't take a joke" that I should basically get out of the water, something like that.

But it misses the point.

The more that we laugh at things like this, the more we let them continue. Hey -- I like a joke as much as the next grrl. But not stuff like this. Some of the phrases that were sent to me include Maxine saying:

I'm ready to listen -- are you ready to think?
Why don't you slip into something more comfortable...like a Coma?
Shhhhh...that's the sound of no one caring what you think.

Why are things funny? Usually, I guess, I find things funny that are clever. These aren't clever. They are "mean crabby things" that I guess people "want" to say to other people and so....they put them in a Hallmark card and mail them...?

I have a client that makes greeting cards. She has some GREAT ones. I'm on her "beta test" list -- she tries out new things that people might like, and then rates them. She said that people's choices have gotten "meaner and meaner" as her years of doing cards have gone on -- that people are basically looking for "curl up and die" cards now. She has "clever" cards, and the ones that sell are the "meaner" ones. Here's an idea of a clever card that got NO votes (except from me -- then she made it for me b/c I told her I would buy 10 of them for all my friends who, like me, have a perpetual few pounds to lose)...

"I love weighing myself at the gym. I just step on, weigh, then subtract the 10 pounds for my sneakers." (It was funnier, but you get the idea.)

I find that funny -- because it is something I really WOULD do (though I think my sneakers are at LEAST 15 pounds).

So perhaps my thought for today is -- what do you find funny? Why? Is it mean? Is it somehow bigoted? (I can NOT TELL YOU how many people tell "Jewish jokes" around me -- I guess I don't look Jewish, being blonde and over 6' tall -- it makes my skin crawl...) Is it just "mean"? Why are you laughing? Do you feel "disempowered"? Do you want to "get" someone, do you want "revenge"?

What up with that??

I think that our sense of humor is the "balance" of our life. And I think that the more we are mean and evil, the more we "laugh at jokes like that," the more we aren't brave enough to say "that's not funny," the worse it is for us.

Just my opinion....but this is also why I have stopped listening to the news so much, etc. etc. I just don't want that poison in my life. Maybe I'm "sticking my head in the sand" but you know what? If it affects my life RIGHT NOW and my quest to be the best person I can be and the best person I can be for others -- then I want to know it. If it has to do with evil, meanness, crabiness, gossip, "stupid other people," laughing "at" other people instead of "with" them, backstabbing, or the like, it's gotta go.

Just my thought.