Laughing Over Lemons

Posted on by Astrid

Laughing over lemons. That phrase has been on my mind for a few days. It’s a twist on the phrase “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” I think sometimes it’s best to laugh at our worst days.

Like, when I had only been in the psychiatric hospital for a day back in 2007, I was telling psych ward jokes. You know, what’s the difference between the patients and the staff on psychiatric units? First, the patients get better and leave. Second, the staff have the keys. And there was another one. Something about not all patients believing they’re God. I think those last two apply to institutions for people with developmental disabilities too. I mean, particularly at the intensive support home (ie. the home for those with severe challenging behavior), my spouse said the only noticeable difference between the residents and staff was the staff carrying a pager to beep for assistance when a resident becomes violent. Other than that, both staff and residents were usually staring blankly at the TV.

We, the residents, were often blamed. Or at least, the other residents (other than me, that is) were. They have no motivation for life and they are too old to teach. Besides, no-one can force them away from the TV because that would be involuntary care. That’s what I was told. Never mind that I’ve witnessed on many occasions staff telling residents that they had gotten enough “attention” for the day because staff had been sitting with them for fifteen minutes with a cup of coffee.

I am often quite cynical in my humor. If only my cynical jokes weren’t actually 99% truthful. And now all I can hope for is that my joke about everything being okay in 2034 (because the world is going to be blasst to hell) isn’t going to turn out 99% truthful too.

I am linking this post up with Friday Writings. It isn’t necessarily a hopeful or positive post. However, I do feel that laughing over the many lemons life hands me and many other people in this world and age, can certainly be helpful.

24 thoughts on “Laughing Over Lemons”

  3. Well, I have to admit I laughed out loud at the joke about thinking they’re God. Not that I have lived in a mental institution (though I did have several years of out-patient psychotherapy in my twenties). But there are members of the medical professions … Your observation about the ‘enough attention’ makes you sound a lot saner than staff who could say and think such things! Your cynical humour seems to come from a very clear eye; glad it had helped you cope over the years. I wish I didn’t so agree with you about 2034.

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  4. When our mind is stressed and when it cannot cope any more with each overwhelming blow that assails it, it rebels and leaves the ways of logic and rational thought. Therapy can help, medication may do its work, but above all, it is interaction with people that may help us overcome those low depths of despair. Some gifted professionals with a true calling to their chosen work can be the ripe juicy lemons that make excellent refreshing lemonade. We may truly laugh with those lemons and drink deep their healing refreshment.

    Nick – Intelliblog

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  5. Dark humor has served as a life raft on more than one occasion for me too. It feels like an act of rebellion, saying, “yeah things suck, but I’ll be damned if this situation takes my ability to laugh away.”

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  7. Laughing at lemons, sounds like a challenging thing to do but worth the effort. I have often tried to pull laughter into dark days to lighten the tension, but not everyone can find the humor amidst tragedy. Laughter is better than tears.

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  8. Embracing the lemon, no matter how sour ~ if one can find a hint of sweet, life is good. I really appreciated the candor, the dark humour in your well composed post!

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  9. It would be “involuntary” work for a worker to do something while that favorite soap opera’s on! This reminds me of elementary school, though my part of the world didn’t have television when I was there. The teachers would say their pieces. Everyone was supposed to learn something. I learned to sleep with my eyes open. If people weren’t able to learn anything from what the teacher was saying, at best the teacher might say it again. If they were too far behind, they could repeat the year. If too far ahead, well that was our fault for being horrible precocious little freaks. They couldn’t be expected to think about their job!

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