Oh, the Good Health of Laughing at Self!

This week Ginger and I lay in bed characteristically catching up on the little events of each other’s day before letting the night carry us off into Nirvana. True to form, the conversation was quite free to flow where it would as she played Words With Friends, a form of Scrabble, on her iPhone, and I enjoyed being prone and relaxed.

“Oh,” I remembered, “and I also called Mom today. While I was talking to her I heard ‘Blliiing! Woooga, wooga, wooga’ in the background.” It was my best attempt at mimicking the sound Words With Friends makes when it gives you new letters. I figured Ginger would be happy to know Mom was playing the game Ginger has found to be such a good way to unwind.

But as soon as I told Ginger this homely little bit of news a warning bell went off in the back of my mind. When Ginger is “in a far country” and calls home in the evening, she wants my full attention and quickly detects if I am doing something else as she is talking to me. She finds that quite offensive. 

Yup, sure enough, she didn’t pause to ponder the possibility of having a new playing partner, instead she asked, “She was playing while you were talking to her?”

“Yes.”

“How rude!” she erupted.

“I’m talking to you…” I offered, in defense of my mother.

Ginger’s hypocrisy hit her like a ton of bricks. I could see it crash into her consciousness as she paused mid-play. (Split-second of silence, then…) Gales of laughter! She saw the silliness of her knee-jerk pronouncement while caught in the very act she was denouncing. Oh how that gave her the giggles! It was a joy to see her so amused! It’s one of the many things I love about her.

When my own laughter subsided, I mused, “What a different end of the story it might have been if the Pharisees had laughed (like you just did) when Jesus held up a mirror for them.” Ah, if it could only have been that way for them, then, and that way for each of us now and always.