Humor, Wit and Wisdom

 What’s in Your Survival Kit?

The humor and wisdom of  two writers are in my survival kit!  Peg Bracken, on the left and Erma Bombeck on the right,  kept us laughing [at ourselves] through the -60’s and -70’s.  Both women lived through the trauma of wars, riots, and assassinations. Then, they saw the Boomers coming of age, lose their minds and moorings in the ‘60’s and early 70’s. Neither woman ever got personal, snarky, or crude.

Since today’s news feels like we are losing our minds again, here are some quips and wise, gentle advice.

If you can’t make it better, you can laugh at it. ― Erma Bombeck

I didn’t learn for years that you generally find your Self after you quit looking for it. ~ Peg Bracken 

There’s a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.   (E.B.)

Frankly, these days I think the line is anorexic!

But, we need to laugh; for as Erma wrote, “When humor goes, there goes civilization.”   And things are looking like nobody reads much Emily Post any more.

 Looking around my autumn’s garden, I keep hoping Allen Funt will appear and say, Smile you’re on Candid Camera!

Not likely, huh?

Maybe I reread Peg Bracken and Erma Bombeck because their humor still fits so well in my survival kit. They  remind me, as my hourglass looks oh so bottom heavy:

The time you enjoyed wasting wasn’t wasted. I think I’ll have that printed some day on a T-shirt or the bedroom ceiling. (Peg Bracken.)

Who doesn’t need to know that at this age and stage!

Here’s hoping this re-introduction – or introduction  — to these women will help us reline our survival kits in these unsettling, uncertain, unfunny days. After all,

Forgetting things is what gives old age a bad name, that and old age.” 
— Peg Bracken

Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.(E.B.)