Today my parents arrive, mixed blessings all round and a fair amount of juggling going on. First there are the three generations to contend with, there is also Kev who finds any invasion of his space traumatic but is particularly tricky as my parents views are aired without our reality or forethought. Time for them is their own, for us it is in very short supply as Kev, who only gets a week off at Christmas (just to clarify that only a week in a whole year) it is a precious commodity.
For me it is when families are at their worst and at their best. My dad is full of sayings that he has made up which are full of the truths of life. Many years ago he uttered one such truth that has bounced back in my mind many times since “Humans are solitary pack animals, neither happy living together or apart”. I love my dad!
Humans love a get together but also need their individual space. I know there are a lot of communities that get along in communal huts but I bet you that they all have reflective time. Contemplation gives us perspective which can lead to empathy. But not all of us get to the empathy stage, this can be bad but it also can be very funny as most humour starts with an individual’s lack of understanding of the world outside their own little bubble.
We all live in a bubble of our own understanding of how the world and the people in it should behave. Some people have very funny ideas indeed or at the very least quirky. It’s this quirkiness my dad taught me to play with and Kev can look at a person and very quickly ascertain their idiosyncrasies, it was one thing that attracted him to me in the first place. Now our children have also picked up the rudimentary skills of looking at personalities and mannerisms with a comic twist. My mum finds my dad and me very irritating but my husband and children are in her eyes very amusing.
So this evening as we sit around playing cards (I hope) we will in the Alderman tradition be taking ‘Freudian slips’ twisting them a little and laughing at the outcome. With the tutts my mum will undoubtedly give me and my dad adding to the pleasure. The little sniggers and great big belly laughs will be sounding out this year and ringing in the New Year I hope.
WARNING
Always handle the ‘butt of your jokes’ with care and love and if you are the butt for a while, laugh with them and like cramp it will abate. You never know you may be able to laugh at your self and that’s not a bad thing.
