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From: Russ Hicks
Date: 22 Oct 2006
Time: 09:10:55 -0500
Remote Name: 71.123.208.188
Hello Mary Ellen, ..... You asked, "Do you feel that your sense of humor has helped you deal with your stuttering?" Oh yes, definitely! A sense of humor helps in almost everything in the realm of human activities. Oscar Wilde said: "Life is too important to be taken seriously." When we take the time to sit back and look at ourselves, it's hard not to see the craziness in our own lives. ...... One of my favorite stories along those lines involve the fear of public speaking, which is the THE MOST COMMON FEAR in the world! The SECOND most common fear is DEATH! As Jerry Seinfeld says, "Then it stands to reason that if you're going to give a eulogy at a funeral in front of an audience, you're in worse shape than the guy in the box!" Ha, ha, ha! I've always loved that quote! ..... I won the Southwest United States Humorous Speech Contest in 1996 in Toastmasters. And along the way one of my greatest joys in life was watching people laugh hysterically in the audience. My speech had nothing whatsoever to do with stuttering, but dealt with an nearly unbelievable experience my cousin and I had when we were growing up together. People would come up to me after my speech literally with tears of laughter in their eyes and say, "Let me tell you about the time MY older brother..." By conjuring up memories of goofy events in THEIR OWN lives, people are really laughing at themselves! And people LOVE to laugh almost more than anything else! (Well almost anything else... <grin>) And if you can share a laugh with people, the stress of communication drops enormously and you can enjoy the friendship that inevitably comes with laughter. ..... Want a good short joke for a stutterer? What do you call a boomerang that won't come back? ..... A stick! ....... See, you laughed! Ha, ha, ha! ..... Excellent question, Mary Ellen! I wish you the best - and a life filled with humor! <smile> ..... Russ