The kind of laughter that precedes a complete mental break down...

Once in a while at work, things just strike me as funny. For those who work in fields where compassion, understanding and empathy are key, occasionally, there is a need for a touch of dark humor. Face it, I work in a human service office dealing with people in crisis all day. Most of the time, those crises can be pretty gruesome - murders, suicides, overdoses, intentional self harm. So every once in a while, we need to laugh and, sometimes, we laugh at things that, I think, most people would find pretty offensive. Today, however, I was laughing not so much at the situations presented but at the details of the crisis calls we were getting.

For some reason, there were 6 separate calls from 6 different people and their needs were wide ranging from just a mere complaint to a person with suicidal and homicidal ideations. The thing that struck me funny was that all 6 of these people called as a result of their frustration of being in a grocery check out line at some point during the day. None of the calls were related. They weren't even at the same grocery store. As we read through these crisis contacts, I started to get the giggles. It's such a universal frustration but the severity and degree to which some of these folks expressed it just started me off and once I got started, I couldn't stop. I mean I hate grocery shopping as a rule but, seriously, getting to the point where the police and crisis unit have to be called is a wee bit over reactive, wouldn't you say? I guess I feel for their pain but I do appreciate the laugh.

Of course, with the price of groceries these days, I bet we can expect more of these calls!