Laughter and Tears

Dolly Parton's character, Truvy, in Steel Magnolias, stated that laughter and tears was her favorite emotion. This is a paradox that I thought about alot recently. Strangely, the two can come together and feel alot more powerful than either emotion alone would suggest.

For better or for worse life is not a la carte and the good and the bad come together. When the good and the bad come a bit spaced out I find it fairly easy to know how I'm feeling and react accordingly. For example one day I might realize that something made me sad and I can go on a walk, eat a truffle, or watch a beautiful sunset to make me feel hopeful and happy again. Another day I might think I am so happy today and I can go on a walk, eat a truffle, or watch a beautiful sunset to bask in my glorious life.

However when the good and the bad hit together, my emotions get all twisty together and I don't know how I feel or what I should do to detangle them. One day last week I was driving from I-35W to I-94 and while thinking about some of my 1st world problems, out of no where I was hit by a wave of emotion. I literally couldn't tell if I was laughing or crying. Literally, for 15 minutes I couldn't stop this laugh/cry thing because everytime I tried using deep breathing to stop the hilarity of the situation would hit me. If you were driving down the I-94 and saw my confused crisis, I hope your day was brightened by the sight of the crazy woman in the Jeep!

While Laughter and Tears will never be my favorite emotion, I have felt relief from great burdens by humor and I hope I continue to find things to laugh over, especially during the dark times of life.

Just for fun, here is a snapshot from one of the many trips I went on this summer that I never blogged about.


Clark, Daniel, and I on our backpack trip with Dad this summer in Montana