I think I have a bit of a fixation with being funny.

I’m not sure what it is exactly, but to me being funny is almost more important than being nice or kind or any of those other things that I’m led to believe are positive characteristics. I am always the one in restaurants telling loud jokes at the expense of her children for cheap laughs. It’s attention seeking behaviour I know – probably symptomatic of some sort of hideous self-esteem issue* – but in my mind being funny is the only way to be not boring and make people like me.

“But you are funny,” says my friend Kathie, “so it’s OK.”

“But what would I be if I wasn’t?” I ask, somewhat needily, “What would I have then?”

“You’d be nothing,” she says, “just an empty shell.”

Hmm. View Post