Even Fundraisers Need A Break Now and Again

You don’t need to be a staff writer for “The Simpsons” to come up with a good quip or two every once and a while. I’m proof of that. All you need is the ability to look at yourself or at life from a slightly skewed perspective. For example, a week or two ago I wrote on my Facebook and Twitter pages, “Richard just lost twelve pounds. No, wait, there they are.” I know Dave Letterman won’t be calling me anytime soon, but I thought it was funny. Apparently, based on the responses I received to the post, so did a lot of other people.

And that’s the whole point. We are all in this mess together. And while this deep, record-breaking recession is all very serious business, we still need to laugh in spite of it, or I’d even go so far to say because of it. The French writer, Romain Cary, once wrote, “Humor is an affirmation of man’s dignity, a declaration of man’s superiority to all that befalls him.”

I think it’s time for us to find a way each day to declare our superiority over what is currently befalling all of us by having a good laugh together. I think we owe this gift to each other — because I, for one, can’t start crying. I’m afraid if I do I might not be able to stop. So did you hear the one about the …

Richard DeVeau freelances for a number of nonprofit organizations and the communications agencies that serve them, as writer/creative director/owner of Richard DeVeau Creative, and he can be heard laughing out loud every time he passes a mirror.