Member of the Family

In my family, the cartoonists proliferated: my brother, my Aunt Stella, my mother, and in words, my dad. It was hard to be a very serious child. "It's not funny!" was a line I would have used repeatedly but gave it up by age 7 and just smirked instead. The silent treatment worked for them and made me skyrocket in the self-esteem department. I didn't "get it." Why were these intellectuals who could expound on the difference between those old guys Socrates and Plato at the drop of a hat and explicate the origins of Virgil's whatever be such a bunch of bananas? And why were they always laughing at me? What did I do? I remember my mother once saying, "Look! She's standing!" What was that all about? Was this a commentary on naps? In high school, one of my friends made the startling remark, "You are so funny!!!!" My reply brought peals of laughter. "But I'm serious! I am a very serious person." She barely was able to squeak out, "Right!" I began to worry when I took a humor writing class. I was hoping to flunk. It was a project --like my mother putting me in beauty pageants so I could win scholarship money. I tried my best to do poorly. The class, however, always finished up for the day laughing. Yep. Burt kept my stories for last. Then, my dad needed someone to do some cartoons for the retirement community newspaper he had started. I didn't understand why he chose me with all the rich talent handy. Puzzled at my success, I decided that trying to share my serious persona with the world might be like Arthur Conan Doyle's attempt to inform us that there was more to life than Sherlock Holmes. He had to be kidding!! A friend of mine in Eureka finally set the record straight. She said, (laughing),"You are a regular Dalai Lama. He giggles on average 500 times a day." Oh! Now we're talkin'! Now I get it. Really. Seriously! He likes outfits and peace and silly days and writes books. People should have pointed this out when I was a child. I can see why they didn't. I was more fun than a barrel of hoptoads to watch. "Look! She's giving us the silent treatment! Don't disturb her. It's the Heavy Limb pose. It's too funny!" There was a discussion the other day about the Briggs-Meyer personality test. I was in the stratosphere on Service. I would like to tell you at this point that I have been glad to be of service to Earth by being the object of entertainment. Well, sort of. I would rather have been Mother Theresa than the Dalai Lama. She wrote books , had outfits, loved peace and silly days...and best of all, hung out with babies. And everybody took her cerealy.

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.....the blessings of a merry heart and a deeply felt mission be yours....