When I officiated at a friend’s memorial service two weeks ago, I began the service by assuring folks that it was OK to laugh.  There was a lot of sadness in the room, of course.  But a lot of love, too.  And I knew we were going to share funny stories and happy memories, as well as our pain.

There are parts of life that are very serious and demand only a serious response.  But other parts, parts that seem oh so serious at first, sometimes aren’t as serious as we first feel.  My petty moods, and aggravations.  The annoyances of the day.  A thoughtless remark.  The machine that does’t work.  The missed appointment.  The “sold out” sign.  You could get seriously upset.  Or you could laugh.

I love the quote from the playwright George Bernard Shaw who said, “Life does not cease to be funny when people die, any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.”  My friend’s death wasn’t funny, but very often his life was.  (Thank goodness for that.)  No one laughed at anybody’s grief.  We took that seriously.  But life is serious and funny, and sometimes both at the same time.