IN THE EYES AND EARS OF THE BEHOLDER....I suppose.
It's difficult to joke around with some folks. Then at times, with the very same person, it's easy. I think it has to do with a particular person's circumstances at the time they receive what another tries to convey as humorous. Other times, receipt of another's offering of humor is circumvented by some preconceived notion of the practicing comediene. Humor is relative only to the point of what another's perpective is. For instance...
Funniest Home Videos can be hilarious with one situation, or painfully bizarre. I never quite got the slapstick humor of the three stooges. I've tried my hand at the Don Rickles kind and had it virtually slapped at times. Invariably it is when I try to be one of the crowd and find out I never was or never will be one of the crowd.
Whatever. I've found that when I'm in a jovial mood, I tend to think everyone is feeling my funny. Other times, I am quite sensitive to the possibility that someone will not find my offerings of humor very funny at all. Folks who know me well, know I am one who likes to join in the frivolity of others. Yet, even so, I hold back quite often because I do not feel safe in environments beyond my very tiny world. Occasionally I step out of my comfort zone and find I would be far more comfortable back in my home-zone. If you get my drift.
Ever think you're being funny and find that others do not appreciate your sense of humor? Ever wish you'd never even tried? Ever think that because you are connected in a tenuous thread of communication that seems rather binding--that you assumed was binding--as a Christian, a family member, fellow church member and thread unravels without a hint of warning? Ever think that you have the liberty to kid around..., only to discover you have no liberty...that you've overstepped your boundaries as a fellow--, uh, well, anything...sister, brother?
I have. As recent as today.
Sometimes I get a bit weary of always being serious. I like to kid around like everyone else. I like to goof off and join in the frivolity I see in the internet connections we have. However...
(there's always however with me, remember?)
...however...times are tough right now. People's lives are a hanging by threads of discord and suspicion. One cannot always judge the timing of a punchline or the difference between a poke in the ribs, or a punch in the nose by another's virtual fist.
I think, for me, I shall crawl back into my shell of silence and simply stick to the serious side of life. It seems to be better received. And should I be tempted to take my fingers into another's territory of gay-merry-making, I shall bite my nails and paint them with pepper instead. I'm sure the taste of hot pepper will generate less heat than my ill-timed piece of humor, anyway.
All things being equal, not all things are equally funny. To some folks anyway. selahV
