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Saturday, September 12, 2009

Has Your Partner Made You Laugh?

Laughing together makes everything better -- if only for a few moments. But once you have a good laugh, the effect is not only while you're laughing, but also when you retell the story to others, and when you remember it later by yourself. If it's a really good laugh, it becomes part of the ongoing connection you have with your partner - a shared smile that the two of you can resurrect any time, often with only a single word or phrase.

For Richard and me, the phrase is, "They're making a break for it."

Several years ago I went through a very hard period. Bad pain. Bad attitude. I couldn't work and didn't want to leave the house. I was sunk in misery, waiting for a new medication cocktail to kick in. I was Eeyore, moping and wandering aimlessly from one room to another.

One afternoon as I was heading upstairs, I noticed 9 black socks draped randomly on several stairs. Now, Richard and I have gone mano-a-mano many times about his tendency to leave objects strewn about the house. But this was over the top and inexplicable.

I asked him to join me at the bottom of the stairs and explain the mystery of the strewn socks. He said, "They're making a break for it. Trying to join their comrades in the land of lost socks."

I cracked up. Both at his explanation and at imagining him coming up with this scene and placing the socks, one by one - purely to make me laugh. That became a good day and a shared memory that still makes us smile.

How about you? Any stories about a time when your partner made you laugh?

4 comments:

Emily said...

I'm lucky enough to have a husband who makes me laugh everyday. It's either some funny link sent along or just his own hilariousness... I'm really glad to have married someone who makes me laugh. Otherwise, like you said, it's easy to get bogged down and sad when you're in pain!

Kerry said...

My hubby and my funnies are usually unintentional but have the same fun, healing effect.

ie..When I thought I could go faster than I could on the treadmill. He flew out of his seat in just enough time to catch me as I flew off... I love remembering that (not only does it make me laugh, its metaphor for his being there).

Just love that your husband set those socks up just to make you laugh. Hmmm...could there be...a happy place for lost socks, a place with no stinky feet to cover, a place that "not lost socks" pine for...

Thanks for a great funny Barbara and a reminder to keep finding the funnies (or like your hubby, make the funnies).

Barbara K. said...

Hi Emily & Kerry - thanks for commenting. I'm glad you have a partner who brings smiles to your faces.

Daphne said...

My partner is very funny as well. She suffers from short-term memory loss often (very absent-minded professor) and the inadvertent 'funnies' happen fairly often. She is also a practical jokester and I often am the happy recipient of many pranks. For instance, I will set down a glass of water, turn around to do something, then turn back around and wonder where my water has gone... and then wander around the kitchn looking for it, as she giggles silently around the corner.