LAUGH OR CRY

Saturday, June 13, 2009

We have all heard the expression: "You can either laugh or cry and I had rather laugh." I personally think that laughing and crying are both good for you. This week I feel like laughing. I hope you do too.

This old story has been told so many times by preachers that I don't know if it is true or just another "preacher's story." But regardless, here it is:

A young married couple were having an argument over the wife's misunderstanding of how mechanical things work and her inability to operate them. She told her husband that her father knew more about mechanical things than he did. This really made him mad. About that time she was trying to zip up her dress and the zipper stuck. She yanked as hard as she could and it hung--right between her shoulder blades. She looked in the mirror and saw her husband smiling that smug, superior, condescending smile that absolutely infuriated her. "Got a little mechanical problem?" He said. "I'm sure I don't have the mechanical ability to fix a broken zipper. Why Don't you call your father." He finally came over and released the zipper quite easily , but he couldn't resist running it up and down about ten times just to show her how easy it was. She grabbed her purse and bolted out of the house, determined to get revenge.

That evening when she got back home the garage door was closed and her opener wouldn't open it, so she had to park in the driveway and come in through the side garage door. She saw her husband's waist and legs sticking out from under the car--he obviously was trying to repair something. Here was her golden opportunity. She reached down, grabbed the zipper on his pants, and ran it up and down till it seemed like it was hot. From under the car she heard one startled exclamation, a thump, and then silence.

She marched triumphantly into the house with that same smug, completely satisfied smile on her face that her husband had had that morning. To her absolute astonishment, her husband was standing at the refrigerator getting a drink. "How did you get in here?" She exclaimed. "By the usual method--I walked." "Who's under the car?" "Oh, that's Fred, he came over to help me fix that exhaust leak." (Fred was one of their deacon friends from church.)

When they called his name Fred wouldn't come out from under the car. They finally grabbed his legs and dragged him out. Fred was unconscious. When she had grabbed his zipper, he had been so surprised and excited that he had raised up quickly and hit his head on the car frame.