A Smile, A Thought, & A Tear
As many of you know, I love humor. I enjoy a good, clean joke. I enjoy being around people who can share humorous experiences. I just love to laugh and I love to be around people who laugh.
I even enjoy laughing at myself. When you mess up and do as many stupid things as I do, that’s not a bad trait to have.
It seems to me that, sometimes, the most effective humor contains a kernel of truth. There are times when there is much more than merely that kernel. There are times when humor can make a person stop and think. There are even times when that thinking causes a person to think seriously and could even cause some sadness.
I was recently going through some fairly old material and found what I think is one example of that. The December, 1990 issue of Readers Digest contained a story that appeared in its “Campus Comedy” section.
It made me smile and it made me think. Maybe it will do the same for you. Here is what was in that issue:
Astronomy class at the University of Toledo in Ohio seemed easy at first, but, as the quarter progressed, the material got more complicated. One day, our professor was discussing nebular condensation accretion theory, which explains the formation of our solar system.
After an hour of note-taking, a classmate put down his pencil with a sigh, “You know,” he said, “this topic was a lot easier back in Sunday school.”
(contributed by Thomas Oakley)
As I read that, it made me smile once again. It also made me think once again. Unfortunately, that little story made me sad once again. I kind of wanted to shed a tear.
It is very, very sad to me that things have regressed so much since 1990 to the point that, in many cases, that student would be kicked out of that class (and maybe school) for making any reference about anything religious. I don’t know about you, but, to me, that is no laughing matter.
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AUTHOR: Jim Faughn
