Dark Comedy - The Trouble with Me

November 21, 2008



Dark Comedy



Life complications plus time = Comedy



Tragedy plus time = dark comedy

The funny thing about my life is how I complicate everything.

Rather than living and enjoying the moment I allow the details to get in the way. For me, it’s lists. Everything that tries to glom onto my attention centers gets slapped on a list: a major list, a lessor list or a random scrap of paper to be turned into a list when it grows up. Sort of a primitive evolutionary list. Which reminds me of the two boxes I found in the attic of a relative who was a terminal pack rat. The first was labeled, "string - save." And the second box, "pieces of string too short to save."

And of course then my lists have to be minded. Stacked mostly. And, heaven forbid, I should lose one of my sacred lists. Even if only misplaced a lost list becomes my version of the Grail Quest. I’m all a dither until the list has been returned to its rightful spot – the grand list repository. Usually after three panic-stricken hours I find the wayward list that I’ve folded over on a yellow pad, you guessed it, so I could start a new list.

So what has this got to do with Dark Comedy? I suppose the commonality is dealing with stress. You see we all need drug-free tranquilizers. Well not all of us as some of my friends prefer drugs. They say drugs are far more fun than making lists and far easier than keeping up with lists and the drugs are far less addictive than lists.

So how do you deal with stress?

There’s exercise. I try to get in two types of exercise every day. And I can prove it – it’s on the list there with the tiny little backward check marks. My checks are backasswards because I’m left handed and dyslexic and the backward check just feels more natural. And of course every time I resolve something off the list, no matter how minor, there is that little orgasmic rush that fulfills me so.

Exercise does help with stress but that doesn’t mean I can’t concurrently run one of my negative mind tape loops also nicknamed by my family the Awfulizations of Alan.

Then there’s my favorite stress reducer – the power of laughter. There’s nothing better to eliminate stress. And black comedy has the added benefit of helping you realize there’s always someone who’s got it worse than you. That is, unless the black comedy is all about you, then it can also be a grand stress reliever as confession is good for the soul.

Another good stress inhibitor is meditation and its North American cousin - the daydream (Some people think the North American cousin is the wet dream but it’s not). Daydreams are commonly thought to be huge time wasters but they are actually valuable road maps to your best life. After all life is not about living, it’s about being alive. All this bunk about security is great for late at night when you’re trying to get back to sleep but security (as Wall Street is so abundantly revealing to us) is mainly bunk. Life is either an adventure or it’s nothing.

And finally, one of the best stress relievers is keeping a list of petty concerns that can be handily dealt with before any of the listed items grow big enough to cripple you, eat your house or destroy the entire planet.

So maybe a few lists aren’t such a bad thing after all.