How important humor is to this alcoholic and I think to most alcoholics. When something is funny it’s funny and worth the laugh. Laughing is such a healing medication for what ails most of us. It’s curative in the best sense of the word.
I can remember back in the beginning of my sobriety I could find nothing funny and a laugh came hard for me. Having just come in from the storm of alcoholism, the best I could do was to force a smile now and then. But humor in anything was still a long distance away.
As Bill W. pointed out, we sober alcoholics find great humor in things, which others might find tragic. I think that’s when I began to laugh for the first time, hearing the stories of others with which I identified. Being able to laugh at situations similar to my own. Or at least close enough.
Eventually the heavy burden of moroseness began to lift, as it was shown to me how my self centeredness was the cause of my being so serious. I took myself too seriously. Through the help of my sponsor and the group I began to learn how to laugh at myself. In fact, as time went on the biggest kick I began to get was when people pointed out to me, accompanied with laughter, just how foolish I could be at times. From this kind of humor I was to experience a sense of right proportion of myself. I know others, who are able to do the same. Laugh at themselves. What an enlightening experience that is for me and I’m sure for them.
I was thinking of this today, when discussing the Tenth Step and it’s importance to our maintaining sobriety, there were moments of outright laughter at situations being described. For me that is always appropriate, as long as I remember that under the surface, we are talking about a deadly disease. The return to alcohol can be fatal for an awful lot of us. It was for many I have known in the past.
Anyway, I was prompted to think of humor and the value of laughter today, as it relates to my sobriety. And it definitely does