I have the good fortune of coming from a family that manages to find humor in all of life’s crevices; the darkest, dirtiest, scariest recess can’t keep us down for too long, perhaps out of pride, or fear of falling apart, but we can usually laugh our way out of a tight spot.
Over the past week, I have been spending a lot of time in the hospital with my family, and when we were at our most tense, yet guardedly relieved after my father just came through 5 long hours of surgery, we stood in the ICU begging for a flutter of his eyes or a squeeze of the hand, when the voice on the intercom announced, “CABBAGE IS ROLLING! CABBAGE IS ROLLING!”
We looked at each other and started laughing. Did we hear that right? CABBAGE!?
CABG, or cabbage is apparently medical lingo for Coronary Artery Bypass Graft, so the intercom was simply alerting the nurses that another bypass patient was successfully coming out of surgery, while we are giggling like 12 year olds. We are a classy crew.
Irreverent, juvenile, and a little inappropriate? Maybe. But it felt good, and put our situation in perspective. Our triple cabbage, with a side of thoracic aneurism, is still alive, and that’s something to be pretty damn happy about, so we let the tension and fear slowly roll off with each chuckle and belly laugh.
This week has served up a good reminder to myself….no matter how tough it gets out there…embrace my inner 12 year old and look for rolling cabbages….they are there, even if it takes a while to find them.
Besides, I’ve always agreed with Maya.
“I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t laugh.â€
― Maya Angelou