I realize this sounds pretentious, but I don’t think most people end up in the scenarios I do. And that’s sometimes a problem.

Because, advice relies upon shared experiences, and I often don’t mesh with others in that regard. So, I had to come up with a plan for when I can’t always find someone with an answer. And, well, it might not be a great long-term solution, but what I came up with is to laugh.

I fear it makes me look a little crazy, but, sometimes, as the dominoes show they are falling into the outlandish patterns they sometimes do, I just laugh.

I don’t mean that metaphorically; I mean literally, out loud, I laugh. A chuckle, a cackle, or a guffaw. What else can I do but have a sense of humor? People tell me I’m funny—and sometimes I am trying to be—but often my black humor and sarcastic quips and snarky retorts are really me just venting. Humor is an effective coping mechanism. When I was younger, I listened to a lot of comedy routines, and, nowadays, I listen to a lot of philosophical stuff—and the result is…yeah, I find stuff funny when I can’t handle it any other way.

And, just to be clear, I’m not only talking about myself here, I am saying this as real advice. When you are at your limit, stressed, overwhelmed, and nothing works, keep widening your mental scope until you hit comedy. Go out to your existence on the planet, if you need to, and find the humor, or, at least, the ridiculousness of the situation. Find the absurdity.

It won’t solve the problem, at all, but it will give you a little mental space. Being freaked out doesn’t make the thing that freaks you out less harmful. I’m not perfect at applying this, not close, but sometimes, man, humans need to laugh.

I’m a collection of meat and carbon and air and chemicals, controlled by a muscle sitting inside a bone container, attached somehow to an immaterial identity we call a soul. And with that last bit there’s some contention on within the population. And when I am worried about something, I’m worried about something happening on a tiny mass of matter in an infinite void of cosmic entropy.

And that’s fucking hilarious.

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Special thanks to: Bob Gerkin, Collin Pearman, Dylan Alexander, Jerry Banfield, and Michael The Comic Nerd. 

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