(1 minute, 48 seconds)

Ever since I heard the embarrassing story of Debbie’s billowy dress getting caught in a fan, I’ve wanted to cultivate a quicker sense of humor and grow in the good habit of thinking less of myself.

My friend Jon’s wife, Debbie, attended his high school class reunion with him. Like most mid-year reunions, it was a sweltering summer day. One of those gigantic metal fans was spinning fast and blowing air down the hallway to help keep roasting people cool. Debbie, in her long flowing skirt, was standing with her husband near the end of the hallway, visiting with people she was meeting for the first time, her husband’s old comrades. Melting because of the heat, Debbie backed nearer to the fan to get as cool as possible.

In one swift moment, the hem of her dress got sucked into the spinning fan blades and ripped the skirt off her body! Adorned in a lovely top above, and heels and underwear below, in an instant, she found herself skirt-less!

At this point in the story when I heard it, I immediately imagined what my response to this scenario would have likely been: shrieking, grabbing my husband as a shield, and drag-pushing him before my skirt-less body down the hallway to the closest bathroom for refuge, never to emerge again!

What was Debbie’s knee-jerk response to this unforeseen and sudden vanishing skirt event? Hysteria! She squatted low to the ground in a modest impulse and remarkably fell into peals of laughter.

I was in my 30’s when I heard this true story. I have reflected upon Debbie’s response many times, and each time I thought: I want to be like Debbie when I grow up.

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Last Sunday night we had a family dinner at our home. After attending church in the morning, greeting multitudes at “Door F,” and flitting through church talking with many like-hearted sojourners, my husband and I went to our small group in the afternoon. We arrived home to greet our favorite people on earth, our adult kids who had arrived prior to us. Not wanting to waste a moment with them to change out of my “church clothes,” I welcomed them cheerily and started passing out blueberry lemonade mixed with seltzer. As I turned back toward the kitchen for more drinks, my youngest said with a twinkle in his eye and adoration in his voice, “You have a tail!”

My cobalt blue sweater I was wearing for the first time was on frontwards, but the sash that attached at my waist and was supposed to wrap and hitch neatly at the front? I had fastened it backward. Rather than securing it in the front, I had tied it at the back—leaving a long “tail” down my backside.

I glanced at my children’s faces, all staring at me aghast, realizing I’d been with multitudes today in this disheveled state. Impulsively, I responded by reaching back, twirling my tail, and bursting into laughter over my mistake.

Today, I’m realizing with joy that I have grown up a little, and Debbie would be proud of me.
Yes, laughter is good medicine. Proverbs 17:22
Take your medicine every day.