Nothing wrong with laughing at yourself

Even a 15-year-old boy enjoys riding around on a scooter with his mom and can laugh at the situation — or least he doesn’t complain.

Courtesy photo

ion when the weather is nice small motor-scooter. A cute, little, maroon 125cc scooter that can reach 60 mph if the wind is behind my back, if I’ve got the drag of a semi-tractor trailer in front of me and I crouch into an aerodynamic position like I’m a speedster. In other words, the scooter is cute but is not the most imposing or formidable vehicle on the road.

But I love driving my scooter around. It makes me giddy and literally makes me giggle.

It takes me back to when I was growing up in Iowa and had a little blue Suzuki scooter to ride to my friends’ houses or to the neighborhood pool every afternoon. Iowa is a bit more lax about motor vehicle laws, evidently, since 12-year-olds can legally drive scooters as long as they have a flag waving from the back.

In fact, I was riding my scooter this summer from my house to the new McCook aquatic center to lifeguard, already wearing my swimsuit. I thought to myself, “This is a great way to turn back time. I’m riding my scooter and wearing a swimsuit. I’m 12 again.”

I may look goofy but I was happy and in my element and able to laugh at myself.

And there is nothing wrong with being happy, enjoying the moment and perhaps most importantly being able to laugh at yourself. Siting through meeting after meeting, I often lament that people take themselves too seriously. Yes, there is a time and place for seriousness and earnestness but there is also a time for fun and yes, being able to laugh at your surroundings, at the moment and at yourself.

And trust me, I do plenty of things that I just have to stop and laugh because the alternative is breaking down in tears.

During a recent outing on my scooter, I stopped by the McCook Post Office to check the mailboxes and drop off a few letters. Many people don’t realize that I am one of the laziest people I know. I wear slip-on shoes as often as possible so I don’t have to stop and bend over to tie them. So as I climbed off the scooter, I decided to leave my helmet in place heading into the post office, slightly inhibiting my vision but too lazy to take it off.

As I approached the building, a five-column headline on latest McCook Gazette caught my attention in the box by the door. Looking to my right, I didn’t notice that I wasn’t in front of the door, but rather an immobile glass window. I walked right into the window, fortunately not forcefully, my helmet bouncing off the glass. I giggled to myself, glanced over my shoulder at the SUV that had just pulled up and continued inside, saying a prayer of thanks that my everyday life isn’t recorded.

As I walked outside with mail in hand, the lady in the SUV had just stepped out of her vehicle.

“Yes, I saw that,” she said with a grin.

“Yep, sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself,” I responded as I climbed back on my scooter with my ego bruised but still in tact.

Later in the day, I found myself at the Red Willow County fairgrounds, as part of the McCook Rotary Club’s regular service project to help dismantle the Red Cross Bloodmobile that had wrapped up for the day. With all the tables and chairs put away and the floors swept, the only things remaining out were loaves of bread, leftover from the sandwiches for blood donors earlier in the day. Organizer Cathy Carman offered to let us volunteers take them home. We go through a lot of bread at my house so I eagerly grabbed a couple loaves, forgetting my mode of transportation.

Emerging out of the community building, I remembered that first: I was on my scooter; secondly, that I had stopped at the store earlier in the day for a few grocery items that now filled the enclosed seat; and adding to the dilemma, I had been gifted a cantaloupe earlier in the day that now sat where my feet rested during the ride.

So on my ride home, I was grasping two loaves of bread in my left hand, my right hand was steering the scooter and providing adequate braking and my feet were corralling produce to keep it from rolling off as I rounded each corner. Again, I giggled as I rode away from the fairgrounds and was thankful that no one was video-taping my escapades.

But if we can’t laugh at ourselves first, who can we laugh at?

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Speaking of simply having fun, next week is one of McCook’s biggest events of the year with the McCook Chamber’s Heritage Days. Celebrating Octoberfest, I can’t wait to dig out my German outfits for the a few of the events. Not sure if I’ll wear my dirndls to the MNB Mixer on Wednesday, Sept. 18, McCook Community Foundation Fund’s Third Thursday on Thursday, Sept. 19 on Norris Avenue or for the parade on Saturday, Sept. 21. Any of the events will be a great opportunity to visit with friends and neighbors, to spend time with family and maybe even a moment or two to just laugh at yourself and have fun.