Joy in the Ridiculous

Last night I was talking to my brother, Ted, as I am apt to do.  We generally talk for about an hour or so at least three or four nights a week.  Just general stuff.  How his day was, how my day was, funny or interesting things we may have seen on the news, and anything else that crosses our minds.

I have been giving him a hard time lately whenever he tells me I am wrong about something.  I like to tell him that I am ALWAYS right, at least 99.999 percent of the time.  The other .001 percent I am not necessarily wrong as much as I am mistaken.  But it will make life so much easier if he just goes under the assumption that I am ALWAYS right.

Last night we were teasing each other and I said something along the lines that he has to talk to me all the time since I am his sister.  He said “Who? What? Who are you?  I don’t have a sister….”, etc.  I said if he keeps talking that way, I’ll just call one of his friends and talk to him three or four nights a week.  That started us down the road of wouldn’t it be funny to do just that.

I could call up one of his friends…. let’s call him Kevin.  I could call up Kevin and just start talking as I do with Ted.

“So, how was your day?”

“I had a really bitchy day…. nothing seemed to go right.”

“What are you having for dinner?”

”Did you see the news?  Can you believe what happened?”

And, every time Kevin started to ask me why I was calling him, I could just say “you big kidder you…so anyway” and launch into another subject.  It would be funny. At least for Ted and I.  Kevin may not think it is too funny.  That is he wouldn’t think it was too funny until he realized I wasn’t crazy and was just playing a joke on him.

The more we talked about it last night, the harder we laughed about. Just like we were laughing so hard the last time we went to dinner when Ted was teasing me about not being able to see my watch.  I told him that I don’t like to wear my glasses when I eat.  I really can’t explain it except that glasses are new for me and I usually only wear them at work or when I work on the computer (at work, home or church).  Otherwise I don’t like to wear them and I especially don’t like to wear them when I eat.  He was laughing at me and, as he was laughing, I realized how ridiculous it sounded and that made me laugh.  To the point that the people at the next table told us we shouldn’t be having so much fun.

Of course, thinking about all of this makes me wonder if it is really funny or is it just funny for Ted and I?  I don’t know.  I just know that we make each other laugh very easily and we are very good at teasing each other and being good sports about it.

I do have the same sort of relationship with my other two siblings.  The ability to make each other laugh about the most ridiculous things is one of the things that bind us together as a family.  It is great when we are talking one to one but when all four of us get together???  That is when we can end up laughing so hard that tears will roll down our cheeks and our sides will hurt.

I could go on and on about this but I think it is sufficient to say that I’m so glad I have these relationships that make me laugh and fill me with joy.  Just watch out because we may cook up a scheme someday and you might be an unknowing participant.  Hopefully, if this does happen, you can find the joy in it the way we sure will.