More often than not, the lack of ability to 'get' a joke frustrates because it excludes us from the in-crowd of those that understand it. I know for me, that prompted me to learn Russian. I sat daily in a room of colleagues that shared long winded anecdotes that more than occasionally caused everyone, but me, to erupt in laughter. I hated not 'getting it'. Or for that matter, not even understanding it in the most basic of senses --I didn't speak Russian!
And so, as humor influences our mood, it influenced me to learn a new language. One that I have found is much more similar to my own native language, English, than I expected. To my surprise, the jokes that I remember being so hard for me to understand, even when 'translated' (I use that term loosely), I now realize are extremely similar to American jokes that I 'get' without hesitation.
Until this blog, I never thought about how much humor affected the course of my life. I learned an entirely new language do to my desire to understand the humor being thrown around me. As a result, I married a Russian man, one of those very people in that room everyday telling jokes. And I now see the word as a much more similar place than I once did. I doubt that there aren't ways of understanding each other--any of each other, whether or not we live on the same or polar opposite continents.
Time and space does not affect the general course of life events as much as we are often lead to believe. We all are still born, experience psychological growth, learn, love, hate, bleed, need, and die like everyone else. Humor often responds to aspects of this cycle which we all share. Therefore, the next time you think that you've been separated from the in-crowd by a joke that 'flew over your head', I urge you to realize that some facet is likely there for you to see. It just may take some extra searching for you to find.
Jenn
