plasticann: Black Humor May Help Me Survive

Part two of Monday's Marathon Bombing is more fear, more carnage and more surreal insanity. Boston and surrounding towns are in what the news calls a "virtual lockdown." It's a minor point, but I'd argue that we're in an actual lockdown. Buses/Subway are suspended, we're all supposed to stay inside, work has been cancelled for lots of folks and I'm still in my pajamas.

I woke up, on my own, around 5:30am and I couldn't fall asleep so I figured I'd mosey on over to Facebook to see what's up when I saw friends post about gunshot and explosions. What the #*$&? I've been watching the news since 6am and I really don't know what to think. I do know that after 5 hours of monitoring the news/Facebook and being locked down in my house for public safety, black humor is starting to creep in. Don't get me wrong, this situation is dead serious. But, aspects of this manhunt are so surreal and unbelievable, I can't help but morbidly laugh a tiny bit before going back to feeling low level freaked out.

On one hand, black humor could be perceived as flippant and disrespectful during a situation like this, but I would argue that black humor helps us process and ultimately survive. I was listening to Kathryn Schulz's Ted Talk about Regret a few months ago and she said something about black humor and experiencing real pain and grief that stuck with me.

"Black humor plays a crucial role in helping us survive. It connects the poles of our lives back together, the positive and the negative and it sends a little current of life back into us."

Here are some inane examples of humor in the Zakun household from this morning. Somehow, we just can't help ourselves even in an awful situation.

Example 1:

[Adam comes downstairs showered, dressed and carrying socks]

plasticann: Adam, you're not going out are you?

Adam: NO! We're in lockdown, I'm not going out.

plasticann: Oh OK good, it looked like you were going for a walk.

[Adam starts putting on his socks]

plasticann: [a little on edge] Are you putting on your socks and shoes just in case we have to start running?

Adam: No, I'm putting on socks because my feet are cold.

plasticann: Do you think I need to change out of my pajamas and put on my shoes in case we need to run?

Adam: I think you can run in your pajamas and socks. Besides, he's probably not here.

plasticann: [unconvinced] OK!

Example 2:

Fox News Commentator says, "Just when you think you have a handle on what's going on, you don't know. It's helter skelter, it's an unusual caper that this city has never seen before."

Adam: You know what kind of caper I like?

plasticann: The kind you eat with smoked salmon and bagels?

Adam: No, The Great Muppet Caper.

Note: I really wouldn't call this massive manhunt a "caper."

Example 3:

I was supposed to visit my friend Corinna for lunch and I'd made her a bag of cookies. Since we're locked down, I figured I might as well eat her cookies since I won't see her today. If I'm still locked down this evening, I'm planning to eat Wheezy's bag of cookies if I don't get to see her for dinner. After I'm done with Wheezy's cookies, I'll have to go to my backup backup backup cookies aka the bag in my freezer.

Sorry Corinna! Sorry Wheezy! Sorry Freezer!