All Of The Selves We Have Ever Been
Menu

all of the selves we Have ever been

The Hysterical Society

2/21/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture

Except for a stint in the army, Uncle Lloyd spent his entire life on the family farm.    He remained firmly attached to his caveman roots and his family ancestry working the land.  This led to some peculiarities of manner and speech.  For instance, when discussing if he might wish to donate some of the family heirlooms to the local Historical Society, Lloyd repeatedly referred to the organization as the Hysterical Society.  That’s just the way the word came out when he spoke.  No point in correcting him.  He would not have heard the distinction.   If Uncle Lloyd had lived to see the COVID pandemic, we might have given him some extra credit for his prescient prognostication. 

Panic-stricken, agitated, frantic, distraught, beside ourselves—all manner of hysteria applied.  My one retreat during that time was the library.  Even when the doors closed during the worst of the pandemic, the drive-through remained open.  It was during that time that I reconnected with a long-gone but much loved member of that other Hysterical Society.  I write today to honor her:  Happy Birthday, Erma Bombeck!

Even as a kid, I loved the newspaper.  Not much for the comic section, I did try to peer into my future with regular readings of my daily horoscope.  I practically earned an M.D.  from the Ask the Doctor column, and I built a solid foundation for my future as a therapist by reading Dear Abby, but my favorite column was At Wit’s End by Erma Bombeck.  While she was facing middle age, I was facing middle school.

At a time when people did not “air their dirty laundry in public,” she made a living from it – a middle age, middle class porn star to the homemaking set.  She talked about things we experienced but no one else talked about openly, especially not in front of children.  It was a glimpse into the foibles of family life in the suburbs and a sneak peek into the private parts of a grown up life.

During the COVID pandemic, as I was at my own wit’s end, I borrowed some of her old books from the library.  The titles alone were hilarious:  The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank, Motherhood:  The Second Oldest Profession, The Ties that Bind and Gag, When you Look Like Your Passport Photo, It’s Time to go Home, and I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression, among others.

As I read and laughed out loud, I was reminded that so many “revolutions” have come and gone.  Issues that once rocked the country came and went, and we remained standing.  The women’s movement, including sexual freedom and birth control, and the mass migration of families to the fresh and growing suburbs were all new to Erma and her generation.  While it was simply the state of things when I was born, I was reminded that it was all new and unnerving to the folks who came before me.  They adapted.

As businesses closed and workers fled to their home offices, and children went to school at their dining room tables dressed their pajamas, Erma gave me some perspective: we have been through revolutionary changes before; we will get through this one, too.  What a gold mine Erma would have unearthed from our pandemic experience!  She knew that humor mixed with love was the antidote to just about everything, and she instinctively knew just the right mix of each to keep us laughing and healing without hurting ourselves or others.

Nietschze wrote that “in heaven all of the interesting people are missing.”  I’m pretty sure he is wrong, at least since 1996.  Maybe what makes heaven heaven is that it is full of all the people who died laughing.
​
See you there, Erma.
 



0 Comments

    Author

    Lilli-ann Buffin
    ​

      Get Notified of New Posts 
      Enter your email address and click on "Subscribe"

    Subscribe

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020

    Categories

    All
    Acne
    Adulting
    Advertising
    Aging
    Arms
    Barbie
    Baths
    Beauty
    Beloved Community
    BINGO
    Birds
    Books
    Branding
    Bravery
    Cars
    Catching Up
    Children
    Church
    Cliches
    Clothing
    Comfy Couches
    Coping With Stress
    Coronavirus
    Death & Dying
    Diets
    Dignity
    Discernment
    Drive Ins
    Drive-ins
    Driving
    Essential Workers
    Exercise
    Faith
    Falling
    Family
    Father's Day
    Food
    Friendship
    Fruit
    Games
    Good Intentions
    Goodness
    Good Old Days
    Grace
    Graduation
    Grandparents
    Gratitude
    Hair
    Handwriting
    Health
    Heroes
    History
    Holidays
    Hope
    Houses
    Humor
    Illness
    Imagination
    Influencers
    Ironing
    John Lewis
    Knowledge
    Laughter
    Laundry
    Leadership
    Libraries
    Listening
    Lists
    MacGyver
    Madge
    Magazines
    Mail
    Masks
    Memorial Day
    Memories
    Mental Illness
    Miracles
    Moral Lessons
    Mothers
    Music
    Names
    Nancy Drew
    Nature
    Neighbors
    Oreos
    Other-Mothers
    Our Stuff
    Outdoors
    Parenting
    Pets
    Phones
    Poignancy
    Politics
    Prayer
    Purses
    Reading
    Recipes
    Reinvention
    Revelations
    Rewards
    Rotisserie Chicken
    Saturdays
    Saving The World
    Schools
    Shelf Life
    Showers
    Siblings
    Small Things
    Sorrow
    Speed
    Sports
    Stores
    Substance Abuse
    Success
    Sunshine
    Technology
    Thanksgiving
    Toilet Paper
    Tools
    Truth
    Uncles
    Veterans
    Voting
    Walking
    War
    Water
    Weather
    Wilderness
    Wishing
    Women
    Wonder
    Words
    Work

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
    • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Other Works
  • What Readers Say
  • Home
    • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Other Works
  • What Readers Say