Focusing on the positive as we face these difficult times
Mary wrote a post recently about how she had to take a few minutes to cry and let her feelings out (“I Had to Cry Today”). Mary has a great heart, and when she needs to work out her feelings, she sometimes turns to expressing her fear, anger or other emotions through tears.
For me, on the other hand, tears don’t come as easily as laughter to deal with my fears and emotions. I often look to humor to help me deal with things, and most days I need to say “I had to laugh today”.
Laughter helps me stay on the positive side in times like this where negative news and opinions are easy to find. Part of my normal morning routine is to get up, do my yoga, make a cup of coffee and catch up on the news, mainly for the weather and any big news that people will be talking about. Lately, this has become an exercise in feeling bad for those affected by COVID-19, anger at people doing things that don’t help the situation, and fear for the safety of our first responders and health care heroes.
Mary and I recently recorded a “Daily Devotion” video for the Hampton Roads Church YouTube channel on the topic of “Excellence for God“. We based the lesson on scriptures in the book of Phillipians. We talked about living a life “worthy of the gospel” (Php 1:27 NIV), and the need to “Rejoice in the Lord always!” (Php 4:4 NIV). We’re called to live a life of excellence in response to the grace we received from the gift of God’s son, who “has done everything well” (Mark 7:37 NIV).
We then talked about Paul’s words of encouragement at the end of the letter to the Phillipians:
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Phillipians 4:8-9 New International Version (NIV)
As I write this blog post and remember that lesson, I had to laugh today! Many times I get focused on the negative things happening around me and forget to take time to think about the positive, the true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy things about God and in positive news going on.
I encourage you to look for the positive news and share it with others. Here are some examples of humor and positive news that have helped me the past few weeks:
Some Good News
If you want to forget about the difficulties of COVID-19 for a few minutes, look no further than John Krasinski’s Some Good News Youtube videos. You may know John as Jim from The Office on Netflix, or Jack from Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan on Amazon Prime, or maybe as the husband of Mary Poppins (his wife is Emily Blunt from Mary Poppins Returns), or as a Boston Red Sox superfan who Smaht Pahks his Cah all over Bawstun.
In SGN, John calls on friends like Lin-Manuel Miranda and of course Big Papi David Ortiz to do some encouraging and humorous deeds, like encouraging a young Hamilton fan in Florida and honoring the COVID-19 nursing unit at a Boston hospital. Watching SGN is the best 20 minutes or so of my week every week for the last three weeks, and I’m sure he’ll keep making me laugh with his wicked awesome videos.
The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon – At Home Edition
You probably, like me, have been a fan of Jimmy Fallon since his SNL days, but find it hard to stay up for the Tonight Show. Since the pandemic, Jimmy has continued to bring his humor and heart to us through the Tonight Show At Home Edition. Like before COVID-19, he has fun with celebrity guests, but also always shows a handwritten URL for each guest’s charity to help others in this crisis.
However, one of the highlights for me is that Jimmy’s new producers and in-house guests are his family, including his wife Nancy and their two girls. As Mary’s fond of describing our grandsons, “they’re so stinkin’ cute!”. My favorite thing is when Jimmy reads jokes from the monologue or his thank you notes, then stares at his daughters looking for a laugh, which leads to blank stares, or other interesting responses. It reminds me of when I get on our Facebook Portal with my grandsons and tell them Dad jokes, then they look at their mom, my daughter, to see if they should laugh or not. Great stuff.
Hey Jimmy, your girls are about the same ages as my two grandsons (maybe a year older each), and if they’re interested in a play-date that involves Lego creations or Cosmic Kids Yoga, let me know, I can arrange it.
Morning Boost
In the midst of the fear, bad news and pandemic overload, many touching stories of weddings, visits to elderly relatives and socially-distant neighborhood yoga and dancing continue to occur, and many of these end up on the NBC Today Show Morning Boost page. Some favorites:
- The State Trooper dad who learned his daughter’s dance routine, set to “Holding Out for a Hero”
- The wedding reception line on wheels to greet a newly married couple
- Creative dads making fun happen for their kids
Funny Movies
Mary and I are movie fans, especially the classics that we find on Turner Classic Movies. If you go to the link and select Comedy in the Genre box, you’ll find all the classic comedies currently available to watch on TCM, like Cheaper By The Dozen, a favorite of Mary’s, and The Apartment, my favorite insurance-themed movie (don’t get me started).
You can also find lists of great comedy movies on Netflix, like some of my animated favorites Hotel Transylvania and The Incredibles, as well as some Adam Sandler movies I’ve found and likes, including Murder Mystery with Jennifer Aniston, and The Week Of with Chris Rock.
On the subject of movies, Mary and I recently watched Onward on Disney Plus… funny and very heartwarming.
If you’re trying to save money during the pandemic, or don’t have accounts, all of the streaming services have free trials available, so give it a try… but remember to cancel before the trial period ends. Personally, I’m happy to have these services right now and budgeted to make sure we can continue to find good entertainment for our date nights (Mary and I are having two or three a week now, where we could only find time for one a week before!).
Finally… Dad Jokes
I come from a long line of Dads with jokes. My Dad (Pop-Pop) was the master – he had jokes that we heard hundreds of times, but would always be funny, I suppose because of the way he told them. Each and every time it was like he was telling the joke to someone for the first time. I miss my Dad (he passed away in 2014), but I feel a responsibility to carry on the tradition, and especially to pass along as many dad jokes as possible to my two grandsons.
One site to consider is Bored Panda and their list of 99 Funniest Dad Jokes. THey even found a way to score them and rank them! One caution: some of these are not ones I would personally feel comfortable telling to my 5 and 3 year old grandsons. However, the list contains some gems:
- My wife is really mad at the fact that I have no sense of direction. So I packed up my stuff and right.
- Don’t trust atoms. They make up everything!
- KID: “Dad, make me a sandwich!” DAD: “Poof, you’re a sandwich!”
- How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh? Ten-tickles.
You get the idea. Find a list on your own, share them with some kids and if they, like my grandsons, ask you why you tell such bad jokes, just tell them “I had to laugh today”.