Are You Off Your Rocker?

Betty White is one of the most enduring and endearing stars on TV.  She romps with three other stellar beauties on Hot in Cleveland, but now she has come out in another roaringly funny show called Off Their Rockers.  I have enjoyed this show tremendously because of my interest in the whole game of getting old.

One of the many negative rumors about old age is you lose your sense of humor.  The gang in Off Their Rockers haven't lost theirs and they inspire me to get in the act.  Maybe I can get a little bit outrageous, too.  Maybe not to the extent they do--I could get arrested, and they probably have someone to fix that for them.  


But really, folks, don't leave you sense of humor at the door when you get old.  It's hard enough in this arena to enjoy life, but you can't do it without being able to laugh at yourself and others.  When I worked at the prison, I sometimes taught a class for fellow employees with a focus on how to look at life through laughter.  Prison is a pretty harsh environment.  To get through the experience, being able to laugh was important for both the employees and the inmates. 


One way to reframe events so that you can endure them is to think about them as if Robin Williams or Betty White was the star of your movie.  How would they play it so that it's funny instead of painful?  How will you tell it next year so that you see the humor instead of the anger or fear?  A sense of humor, like butter, helps everything.