Hearing from My High School Friends

It seems strange to see the names of “kids” I went to high school with – in my email inbox. But that has been happening since the corona virus outbreak.

I have not attended any of my high school reunions because it is not a simple direct flight to the small town in Ohio. As I type my reason, I sound more practical than sentimental, don’t I? (I will have to think about that.) Or maybe I never returned because thinking about high school brings up painful teenage memories of sitting at home watching “Gunsmoke” painting my nails while everyone else was out on Country Road E necking.

It has been a LONG time since I was in high school.

Regardless, these people are in my inbox. And while I struggle to put a face to their names, I do get an instant felt sense of the person when I see a name.

The feeling of Larry K, for example, is a feeling of devilishness. The name makes me smile.

And what is Larry sending his high school classmates now?

Humor.

So even though I can’t pick him out of a reunion photo, I can remember how Larry made me feel. And he is now reconnecting and doing what he did in high school: making me smile while I “shelter-in-place.” (Such a sanitized term for what is happening? We small town Ohio folk would never call it that!)

But back to humor.

Rod Martin, clinical psychologist at University of Western Ontario and author of Nerve: Poise Under Pressure says: Humor is about playing with ideas and concepts. Whenever we see something as funny, we’re looking at it from a different perspective. When people are trapped in a stressful situation and feeling overwhelmed, they’re stuck in one way of thinking: ‘this is terrible. I’ve got to get out of here.’ But if you can take a humorous perspective, then by definition you’re looking at it differently—you’re breaking out of that rigid mind-set.

So bottom line, Larry, thank you. While you likely will not read this post, I dedicate it to you and wish you the very best while stayin’ alive!