Quirky sense of humor keeps us young

Before I started taking journalism classes during my early days in the Air Force, I still remember the comments our first sergeant shared with myself and the others who prepared to tackle the huge challenges we would face over the next couple of months. I’m almost positive the message he shared with us came after he watched so many airmen who struggled to survive those three months of intensive, hands-on work.

Back then, we lacked a lot of the luxuries that would’ve made our lives as brand new military reporters a bit easier with regards to effective writing. Everything we wrote started off on a blank piece of paper that we ended up having to type using a manual typewriter.

The idea of using a computer to type everything up, save it on a floppy disk or other storage device and then running the program to check our work for various mistakes was simply a dream back then. The idea of using that same computer to go online and search for various pieces of information was something we never imagined would ever happen.

Whether the technology we have today would’ve made a difference 40 years ago is something that piqued my sense of curiosity as I continued to reflect on my days as an aspiring military newspaper reporter and photographer.

Looking back at what our first sergeant said, I’m pretty sure he developed that message after repeatedly dealing with airmen who were simply wanting to quit and do something else for the Air Force. This may represent the reason why he shared with us that one critical message: Always have a sense of humor.

It was something he said would allow us to take a mental break and simply laugh once in a while as we cracked jokes to one another. As he put it, if we didn’t take time to chuckle to ourselves, we’d likely end up starting to look much older than we appeared due to all the stress that would take its toll on our personal appearance.

I’m pretty sure he also wanted to ensure we didn’t try something else to relieve our stress: Going to a bar, drinking ourselves into oblivion and doing something we’d quickly regretted.

I later discovered our first sergeant was actually paraphrasing the words of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. Known for his work regarding children’s behavior, Piaget often highlighted the humorous ways youngsters think and interact with the world around them.

It was a lesson that doesn’t necessarily end once we grow up. As Piaget clearly pointed out, having that sense of humor as well as a persistent sense of curiosity and a sense of wonder tends to do one important thing: It keeps us from growing old, at least mentally.

To this day, I’m convinced that one message our first sergeant shared was the one thing that held me together, especially during my early days as a base newspaper reporter. It saved me during the times when I needed to take a mental break and simply relax and unwind.

Having spent most of my life working for military newspapers during my Air Force career followed by my time with the Mountain Home News, I can honestly say my first sergeant was absolutely correct. I’ve literally lost count of the times when I would simply stop what I’m doing and work up a joke that I’d share with others.

In addition to helping me overcome the various stresses I deal with, especially when the weekly deadlines approach, my quirky sense of humor also helps me make others laugh as well. I’d like to think telling those occasional jokes also helps them deal with similar types of stress.

Granted, my sense of humor often catches people off guard. For example, my latest series of jokes tend to connect in ways most people never saw coming.

It involves something I now refer to as “Encanto Syndrome” in reference to the animated Disney movie.

My joke begins as I tell certain people in the local area that this so-called “syndrome” somehow caused a large number of families to no longer enroll their children attend the elementary school in Bruneau south of Mountain Home. I then reported that fewer people were now going to the sand dunes state park near that town as a result of this same phenomenon.

It’s all because of the lyrics from a song featured in that movie that states, “we don’t talk about Bruneau.”

It’s here that people realize I was merely joking. We then laugh out loud as we return to what we were doing.

As a result, I feel a bit younger for at least a few minutes after telling that joke. I’m guessing I helped others feel a bit younger as well.

Unfortunately, I’ve dealt with others in my life who didn’t adhere to the words that Jean Piaget shared.

For example, during the times when I attended my class reunions over the past 40 years, I saw how years of alcohol, tobacco and, in some cases drug addiction, took a toll on their lives.

Instead of maintaining a more youthful appearance, many of them now looked significantly older than those around them. At the same time, their addictions also took a major toll on their health with some of them facing uphill battles against cancer.

Sadly, I learned some of my classmates didn’t win that battle. As a result, I found myself reading through my hometown newspaper, cutting out the obituaries of these classmates and storing those articles in the yearbook from my senior year of high school.

I just wish they had taken time to learn the lessons Piaget shared with society. It would’ve given these people a chance to regain control of their lives and make a more positive difference in the lives of others.

– Brian S. Orban