The Spice of Life

So, I could write something deep and spiritual, but after the week I’ve had, I think we’ll stick with light and humorous.

Not that it’s been a bad week or anything. It’s just been one of those weeks when Kaylia has found some new mischief to get into anytime I turn my back. Her absolute favorite thing to do is “help” me in the kitchen, and her favorite way to help is using the food processor.

Yeah, scary. Sharp blades, chopping wildly. It keeps me on my toes.

Tonight, I cleaned up the dangerous stuff, but when I turned around, there she was:

Since when can she open up my spice containers? She had entirely emptied the cinnamon and cloves into the parts of the food processor that I’d left on the counter, and she was well on her way to dumping out my cumin and oregano. Interesting combination.

And Anika has kept me laughing with some of the things she’s said this week, but not all of them are “blog appropriate”. But this morning I happened to overhear the following from one of her stories:

“They didn’t drink, but I wished they would – then they’d crack more jokes, and ride their horses more wildly.”

I have no idea where she’s getting her views on drinking from! This might require some investigation…

Things I Don’t Find Funny

I actually find lots of things funny. I think I laugh often and easily. And I’m married to Ben, who is very funny, and produces funny children.

But there are some things that really bug me, and that I don’t find funny at all:

1. Most types of sarcasm.

I know that people think this is such a sophisticated type of humor, but really, I think it’s usually quite negative, and can tear people down very quickly. If we’re going to be witty and amusing, I tend to like the uplifting, positive kind.

2. Humor at the expense of the most “gullible” person in the room.

We laugh at people who are “gullible”, and feel so intelligent because we’re in on the joke, but they’re not. It makes us feel superior. Which is why I don’t like it. Ben said once that another word for “gullible” could be “trusting”. Why do we mock someone who is trusting? Why do we see that as being inferior, and less intelligent?

3. Hiding negative truth in a joke.

Joking and teasing is not, in my opinion, the appropriate vehicle for expressing negative thoughts or feelings that we really want someone to know about, but are too chicken to say to their face in a serious way.

I know that there are many people who view these things as acceptable forms of humor, but I happen to like funny things that are actually funny, and that don’t hurt people.

Anyway, in an attempt to end this p0st on a lighter note, I will share my favorite funny moment from this week:

A moth had gotten into Anika’s room, and she was searching everywhere for it so that she could kill it with her slipper. She couldn’t find it for long time, but when she finally caught sight of it, she exclaimed in a loud, triumphant voice, “Aha! Your final hour has come!” (Loud thump as she killed it.)

I hope you have an enjoyable weekend filled with many moments of truly humorous things!

Guest post: by Ben

So my beautiful wife has been hounding asking me for a while to do a guest post on her blog. My original thought was to put up some deep, spiritual truth about discipleship and how to learn to love Jesus more. Instead, Kendra asked me to write something short and funny, because she thinks that I can be a pretty funny guy sometimes. I’m so thankful that Kendra thinks I’m funny, because otherwise our relationship would probably be filled with many awkward silences after I attempt to crack a joke. I’m not entirely certain that I actually am funny outside of my own home, but that doesn’t matter. My wife thinks I am, and that’s all that matters. If anyone else thinks differently, please don’t talk to Kendra about it as I’d like to keep her under the impression that I am as funny as she thinks I am. Wow, I’ve used the word ‘funny’ many times in this paragraph so far. That’s funny in a strange kind of way…

I’m already starting to take up too much of the valuable word limit that apparently makes a good blog post, so let me jump to the point:

You should read Kendra’s blog more often.

Bookmark it, add it into your blog reader, memorize the url, or all of the above. Kendra is way to humble to say this, but I think that she writes some amazing stuff. Deep, thoughtful, challenging, and sometimes her posts contain wonderful humour. I must rub off on her in that way at least.

She probably won’t like that I’m doing a shameless promotion for her blog, but she did ask me to do a guest post, so I get to write about whatever I want. It was either this, or an essay on the photosynthesis of plants. I flipped a coin and Kendra’s writing skills won. For today at least…

In case some of you readers wonder what Kendra’s husband (me) is up to when he is not trying to write a guest post on her blog, feel free to check out http://pursuit-redrock.com or http://redrockbiblecamp.com.

Bonus points to everyone who comments with the correct number of times I used the word funny in this post…