By JoEllen Collins
The rapid proliferation of acronyms noting new organizations and techniques, like BLM for Black Lives Matter (the same acronym locals know for Bureau of Land Management), is getting even more complex and sometimes misleading. For example, early on my Facebook usage, when I first saw LOL responding to a post, I assumed that it meant Lots of Love. I remember realizing later how silly I must have seemed to respond with a note of concern for a sad friend with that acronym.
The term Laugh Out Loud was inappropriate as I accidentally used it, and sometimes is sarcastic (i.e., an odd, satirical cartoon image of our current president). I frankly LOVE laughing out loud. And I think that is one reason it is especially hard not to spend time in person with many of my lively and funny friends. The other day I inadvertently opened up a comedy sketch sent by one of my friends on Facebook. As I am usually busy at my laptop with writing emails, columns or novels, I hesitated to open it up. However, I did, and spent the next hunk of an hour laughing OUT LOUD, something I miss about going to see comedians with an audience and catching the spirit of fun, even glancing at others to see if they, too, “got” the joke.
The feature turned out to be a stand-up performance by a woman named Karen Rontowski, and I was delighted to feel those “funny” muscles being exercised. I will look for her again on YouTube or with other video means. I must say that just as acronyms have proliferated, so have online sources for smiles and laughter than can be hard to locate in the maze of massive numbers of offerings, but perhaps I will try to see some more.
My best memories often are of times when I was with my family and we laughed a lot at silly things. Even if you see some of the many animal and toddler antics caught on video, you can enjoy these emotions, but there still is nothing like shared laughter.
A couple of years ago, my daughters and husbands and I were in Arizona for Mother’s Day fun. Now, in the midst of the COVID-19 disaster, it looms as even more special. It was a gloomy day, even in the desert, so we got out a 1000-word puzzle for my two grown-up daughters and I to solve in a time-consuming effort. During one moment, when we were having a hard time finding and placing a little piece that could make sense of the other colors around it, I started imagining that I was announcing an Olympic race, and we all giggled and then roared with laughter as the small “runner” finally touched the victory tape. Of course, we then imagined shot-putters, long-jumpers, and many other athletes on the road to victory. It was tremendous fun.
I will keep finding ways to laugh (ghetto humor?) but I prefer laughing next to and with others.
