Failed Attempt

When properly employed, humor masks anxiety, depression, fear, and other potentially troubling emotions. Humor shields and protects the privacy of the person using it, of course, but it also gives other people in the setting a defensive cover. Humor erases—or minimizes, at least—the discomfort of engaging in painful conversations. Yet, instead of a defense, humor often is a spontaneous expression of lowered inhibitions, amusement, and comic relief. Humor breaks the ice, too, in situations in which social barriers tend to exist. But because of those incongruous applications, misunderstandings about what constitutes humor occur.  For that reason, what I call “defensive humor” should be described with a completely different term. I do not have a term for it,, though. Not one, anyway, I would recommend.

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I’ve tried. I just do not have it in me this morning. I will give up, for now, my attempt at blogging.