The ability
to laugh at yourself is a life saver.
Seriously.
People who
lack that gene, for whom all stumbles are a disaster, all bumps in the road a
catastrophe, all hiccups a brick wall in the path of what we now call ‘success,’
are more prone to depression, isolation, and unhealthy self-loathing.
Suicide, the
act of killing oneself, can be directly related to these three factors.
So,
essentially, people kill themselves because they make mistakes.
Now I am
going to be completely candid here.
Paedophiles,
violent criminals and rapists…? Let me hand you that length of rope.
The rest of
us?
Just calm the
fuck down.
Got drunk and
slept with that guy from across the hall/ made out with your same sex best mate/
woke up under someone whose name currently escapes you? Well, we can always add
one more number to THAT list. Have a shower, buy a course of amoxicillin from
the chemist, give yourself a high five for being so heterofexible (it’s SO in
right now).
Pressed
delete at work when you should have pressed save/ told your boss he was a total
fucktard when he was being a total fucktard/ spent the afternoon on Facebook in
the hope that that report WOULD write itself? Meh, unemployment is a great way
to learn more about the parks in your area, and all the cool stuff they do at
the local Art Gallery, plus there is that book you’ve been meaning to write.
Paid the rent
late for the 900th time and now your landlord is evicting you/
failed to lodge a tax return for the past 3 years/ purchased 4 pairs of Jimmy
Choo’s because if you spent over $ 15,000 they gave you 25 % off (and 25 % off 4
pairs of Jimmy Choo’s is like free
shoes!!!) ? Aren’t you glad you learned more about your local park? Plus, prison
is a free bed; you can’t take it with you. Money is just money. It’s not air.
We spend too
much time worrying about the artificial anti-failure measures that are put in
place to keep us ‘in line’ and behaving ‘properly’.
Although I
never buy his products, the prodigious talent that was Steve Jobs said “Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most
important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.
Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of
embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death,
leaving only what is truly important.”
We must learn, or re-learn, to laugh at ourselves.
We must be joyful that we live to make these so called ‘mistakes’. We
must own them, embrace them, and appreciate all that they teach us. And we must
laugh at our own folly.
Because in the end, as Steve Jobs, and every other person facing death,
discovered, it doesn’t really matter.
And the truth is, my friends, we are all dying. Each and every one of
us.
But before I go, I intend to live with a happy heart, knowing that both
my triumphs and my tragedies have given such pleasure to those around me. I am
a born entertainer in that way. As Mr Bennet says in Jane Austin’s classic
Pride and Prejudice, “For what do we live, but to make sport for our
neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?”
Bring on the custard pies; this is going to be a doozie !!!!
