So many things in life are funny if you simply notice.  The first thing that I tend to notice about a situation is the humor.   I fear that ‘serious’ people sometimes take it as uncaring or willful irreverence, but I have spent times when I don’t find things funny.  That is not a better place to be.

The other day, I choked at the end of a breath.  Coughing without the aid of my assistive machine is not very effective any more.  Most often these days, choking happens with the mishandling of a little saliva, but this time, I had the assistance of a small flying bug on a  kamikaze mission.  As I am turning red and gasping for air, the very caring person with me starts to become very concerned, even scared. After a while, it all turned out fine.  Some time later, this person, who tends to have a very serious demeanor, decides that we should set up a ‘code word’ for me to say the next time I choke. I start to think of appropriate ‘safety words’.  “Antidifferentiation” immediately pops to mind. Perhaps “magnanimous” or “idiosyncratic”. We just have to choose one, then distribute it to the others. I can’t stop laughing as we work on this project.  He looks a little annoyed as he patiently waits for an answer. With a bit more thought, I propose that my code word will most likely be “gasping, turning red and energetically pointing to my throat”.  As long as we’re all on the same page, I think we’ll make it work.