One of my seminary professors joked with me about life in a small town as we both had grown up in them. We joked about what there was to do on a Saturday night. Basically we said you'd sit on someone's front porch and talk. Eventually someone would say. "Hey say that thing you said last week that was so funny to me again." That was our equivalent of attending a comedy club. Entertaining one another with the funny stories we remembered.
I recently found an instance of humor related to telling the same story over again. My mom is suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. It's taken her short term memory for now-and will eventually take the rest of her mind. About the time she moved up here for us to begin taking care of her (to Springfield OH) she re-connected with her sister. They hadn't spoken in years. I would sit sometimes and listen to mom's conversation on the phone with her sister and noticed that each time she would talk-she would mention similar stories-if not identical to the ones she'd shared before on the phone.
Her repetition of stories wasn't new to me-it is one of the first signals that she was beginning to experience dementia. I was a bit embarrassed by my aunt having to listen to the same stories over and over and wondered to myself how much she must love mom to be willing to sit through identical conversations that lasted often an hour or more.
Recently in speaking with my cousin Mike, my aunt's son, he shared with me that his mom too was suffering from dementia-and that her memory had gone too. So it made me laugh and smile as I understood that both women were sharing identical stories and memories with one another as though they were recounting them for the first time. Each time they spoke they were experiencing the joy of the other person's company anew. The conversations included a lot of laughter-big laughs on mom's side of things and I imagine on my aunt's as well.
Think of the ability to experience the newness and joy of a relationship over and over with no understanding of the ways in which relationships sometimes decline and become stale. So at least for the time being mom can experience joy over and over as she talks with her sister-and I can get some happiness in hearing her laugh with someone she loves.
What stories do you remember that make you smile? What's the funniest story you've ever heard? Let me know in the comments.
Peace,
Dwight
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Do you remember the story about Dana and communion? We were at the dinner table. She took a roll and in a quite dramatic fashion (well, you were her minister at the time) ripped it in two pieces and said "This is the body of Christ broken for you." I praised her, of course. Then Dana buttered her roll, took a big bite and said "Hmm...Jesus' body tastes better with butter."
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