You are who you hang with and laugh at

FRIENDS
This comes under the heading of things I have learned. Peggy and I had occasion to host some friends from my past on the occasion of my 60th birthday. It was delightful. We talked about ideas, concepts and life for hours until it became apparent the sun was going to come up if we didn't stop. Julie had a post http://loneprairie.net/blog_archive/2004_10_10_archive.htm last fall of just such an enriching dinner and conversation. I don't think it has to be otherwise. We can live like this. At least we can try to avoid NOT living like this.

I must be blunt, not all of my friendships and social contacts are as stimulating. Some are difficult. I enjoy a conversation that has no boundaries. I enjoy a laugh with an intelligent wit. I enjoy people who are courteous allowing others to talk.

I was better for that night. I realized a truth again I had lost. You rise or fall as a person based on your friendships. Relatives. I can't pick them, neither can you. But I am more careful of people I allow into my life who can bring me down, don't encourage, are lacking a positive outlook and in general are a drain on me. If you are reading this it's probably not about you. The people I'm talking about are self focused enough not to read what others think.

My dear ones, if you want to be better for it all, select your friends well. Be careful not to let others lead you to places you wouldn't otherwise go. Find those who encourage you, spur you on, challenge you.

FUNNY
I enjoy laughing at good jokes. I like good humor. I learned a key truth from a guy I admire. I'll give him attribution, Ron Carpenter, Jr. He said something nearly a year ago that has haunted me and is becoming apparent in my life. Whatever you laugh at you will accept.

I have comedy Channel on my Dish. I watch it some. Bluntly, it's hard for me not to laugh at jokes which have to do with things I would never admit. There are blogs which are hilarious but they have to potential to scar my conscience.

When I was a kid in ND we told Norwegian Jokes, Jokes about Jews, Jokes about N......s.
Don't be offended. I am still affected by some of these racial and class slurs. Blue Collar TV is very funny. It also wounds.

I am not humorless. In fact I may think too much is funny for my own good. The distance between humor and ridicule is short.

Most humor is funny because it carries an element of truth. It's couched criticism. I have enjoyed very dark gallows humor in the past. I'm trying to clean up my act.

Make a conscience decision on what you will access to laugh at. What you laugh at you accept. What You accept becomes much of who you are. I won't even talk about the "good old days". That's a disease of the old. I have a few years left. But our culture laughs at things in public today that just 20 years ago would NEVER have passed. Think about it.