The Last Laugh

I couldn't sleep last night. Toss and turn, with the theme song from 'True Blood' running through my head (because in the last few days I've binged on books, and episodes of my favorite tv show On Demand.). My entire body aches from this cold/flu/whatever it is I've had for nearly two weeks now. I swear, this virus has stuck around longer than some of the men I've dated. I should give it a name. Let's call it Victor. Victor has kept me up most nights, coughing, feverish, sniffling. It's difficult to sleep when you are trying to hack up a lung. Once I fall asleep, I want to stay asleep, for days on end. Hasn't happened yet.

Anyway, last night I was tangled in my sheets, and a question floated across my mind. I can't remember that question now. So I'll ask a different one.

I have a Mary Englebreit print in my room, with the saying "She who laughs, lasts."  I've always liked that phrase, but the saying it's based on, "he who laughs last, laughs best," has always puzzled me. I know that the phrase originated with in Tudor England, and was used by, but not coined by Shakespeare. Yes, I understand that revenge is sweet. So why does this still puzzle me?

Perhaps because I've never wreaked revenge, or laughed last. There are plenty of folks I'd like to take some revenge on, but since I've not exactly triumphed in my life, I'm afraid they'd be the ones laughing at me. Sure, I could seek out that evil red-headed girl who made my life hell in eighth grade, and show her that her cruel words didn't mean anything, but I'd be lying. It's easy to get revenge when you have the resources, and lifestyle of Bruce Wayne; he can build himself a Batcave, and take out the evildoer's who killed his parents, because, hey, he's rich as hell, and, well, he's BATMAN! I'm not Batman. Not even Catwoman. Or Robin. Hell, I'm not even Alfred.

So I think I'll take the Englebreit path, and laugh instead. Look at the odd twists and turns my life has taken, at the strange things that happen every single day, and instead of desiring to rain down vengeance on the world around me, I'll laugh. See the humor in my world. Like Max, following his mom around  making seal noises. Or hearing a woman in the grocery store line comment on the man in front of us, by saying "I'd wear him like a scrunchie!" (He was pretty hot!)

Life is funny. Vengeance, not so much.