Sarcasm

I was once in a Sunday School class where the teacher asked for an example of sin. My smart-aleck friend replied (with a pointed glance in my direction), "Sarcasm!"

The Sunday School Teacher, by the way, was his dad, and thought it was simultaneously hilarious and correct. Fair enough.

But sometimes I think back and smack myself because of my overly-sarcastic tendencies. I've made a concerted effort over the last several years (thanks to this friend) to not tear down others through my sarcasm, but that doesn't help my other snide remarks. For instance, when someone asks me where I was for the past ten minutes, instead of pointing out that I was probably in the restroom and didn't want to announce it for the whole world to know, I'll say something like, "Oh, you know, Aruba. Had to run and grab a bag of sugar."

It's not an attempt to be funny (because, as you can well see, it wouldn't really qualify anyhow), but rather it's an attempt to bring hum-drum conversations a little levity. Obviously, if someone's pet lobster died, I wouldn't sarcastically remark that it was a shame, since it was such a furry, comforting pet. I don't like to accentuate people's sorrow or weaknesses. As a matter of fact, when I'm sarcastic I try to bring the light back of my own inadequacies. I don't have illustrations for all of these (I ran out of awesome ones after the lobster one, obviously), but it's something that I've been pondering for the last few days.

I made a joke about a building burning down, and it didn't come off well. That's all I'll say, but it made me realize that I just can't act as if I'm taking life lightly. Because trust me, I know full well that life is full of icky situations and unfortunate consequences. We all dislike how real life is, and I think that's why I'm especially partial to lightening up situations.

I remember reading a book once that had a quote that struck me as particularly on-target. The book was about a dismal time in Russia, where most people expected to be killed or starve any minute. The narrator of the book made a comment, something along the lines of, "When there was trouble all around us, we retreated to the trouble within books, which always went away when the pages were closed."

Not an exact quote, just so we're clear.

But I remember reading that and realizing that that's what we love so well about books, and jokes, and fireworks. They channel our attention away from the matters that bog us down, and remind us that life is fleeting, and really, it's not the end of the world. Once, after a particularly bad accident with some friends where our vehicle flipped a few times yet we didn't die (praise the Lord!), a friend and I just stood around in the pouring rain, right by our wrinkled van, laughing like it was the funniest thing that ever happened to us. Why? Because we were alive. Because the sun would come out eventually, and it wouldn't seem so bad.

Plus, it was pretty much the funniest thing that had happened to us in a long time. We were just acknowledging the hilarity.

PS, happy Cinco de Mayo!