Not in Kansas Anymore

“…if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard.
Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.”
Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz

It’s hard to refute Dorothy when she sums up what she learned in Oz for Glinda the Good Witch. For be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home. Any decent country western song or nursery rhyme can attest to this truism.

Which is important to remember while we have limited rambling rights. When we’re bunched up together wondering if anyone will ever put the spatula back in the right place, or stop wearing sweats from sunup to sunset, or keep insisting that the ultimate smack-down bout of 2015 World Wide Wrestling IS good television.

Which is to say – our sense of humor has to survive this pandemic if we have any hope of coming out the other side. Otherwise that trail of unwashed cereal bowls and half finished crossword puzzles our significant other is planning to pick up ‘later’ will drive us straight to the Looney bin.

And there are reasons to keep tickling our funny bone. Laughter can lower stress hormones, prevent heart disease, and boost our immune system. When, if not now, is there a better time to boost our immune system?

If this were the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 we wouldn’t understand how to combat the virus with social distancing, hand washing and mask wearing. And seeing as television wasn’t invented until 1927, our happy distractions would be scarce. You had cocktails, card games, and the occasional embroidery project thrown in.

But this is 2020. The largess of entertainment currently available at home, at any given moment, is staggering. This is the pandemic of Netflix, Hulu, Acorn TV, Amazon Prime (where The Wizard of Oz is available ALL THE TIME!), and premium channels. Cooking shows, home improvement or decorating tutorials plus a wide array of educational options. Finally, you have time to learn to speak Greek!

This is the pandemic when you can master both the cheese soufflé and that pesky grout project. And hopefully we’ll do it whilst chuckling at ourselves. Because the social benefits of laughter include strengthening relationships and defusing conflict. Which could be helpful when the next battle royale breaks out over who’s in charge of the remote.

“I have always felt that laughter in the face of reality is probably the finest sound there is and will last until the day when the game is called on account of darkness. In this world, a good time to laugh is any time you can.”
Linda Ellerbee

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
Dalai Lama

“You can’t deny laughter. When it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.”
Stephen King

“If you don’t learn to laugh at trouble, you won’t have anything to laugh at when you’re old.”
Edgar Watson Howe

“Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.”
Lord Byron

“Laughter is the valve on the pressure cooker of life.”
Wavy Gravy