Having a sense of humor has served me more than it has hurt me -

The words “Having a sense of humor has served me more than it has hurt me — just in the sense that it has allowed me to keep my sanity” by Dee Dee Myers are not the words of a jester, but of a sage who has walked through storms and learned that laughter is not weakness — it is wisdom. Myers, who served as the first female White House Press Secretary, knew intimately the weight of expectation, the glare of judgment, and the loneliness that comes from standing in places few have stood before. Her confession reveals a truth as old as time: that humor is not merely amusement, but the soul’s most sacred defense against despair.

To keep one’s sanity in a world of chaos is to guard the flame of one’s humanity. The ancients would have called this sophrosyne — the virtue of inner balance, the strength to remain whole when the world demands you fracture. Humor, as Myers teaches, is one of the oldest and purest forms of that strength. It transforms pressure into perspective and sorrow into song. In laughter, the mind loosens its chains, if only for a moment, and remembers that life, no matter how serious, is still a miracle. The one who can laugh, even gently, has already claimed a victory over fear.

There is an ancient echo of this truth in the story of Abraham Lincoln, a man crushed beneath the burden of civil war and the weight of a divided nation. History tells us that when the night grew darkest, Lincoln told stories — sometimes humorous, sometimes absurd. To his critics, this seemed flippant; to his friends, it was survival. For he understood, as Myers does, that humor is the bridge between pain and purpose. It keeps the mind from sinking into despair and reminds the heart that even tragedy cannot erase the absurd, fleeting beauty of existence. It is no accident that those who endure much often laugh most deeply.

To have a sense of humor is to see life through the eyes of mercy — to look upon its contradictions and forgive them. Myers’ words carry this gentle forgiveness. As a woman navigating the highest echelons of political power, she could have become bitter, defensive, hardened. But instead, she found balance in laughter — a way to soften the edges of power with grace. In this, she mirrors the wisdom of the ancients, who taught that to lead without humor is to rule without humanity. For laughter connects where logic divides; it reveals the heart behind the intellect, the soul behind the title.

Yet her words also hold warning. She says that humor has served her more than it has hurt her — meaning that though it has saved her sanity, it has also been misunderstood. In a world that mistakes seriousness for strength, humor is often seen as a mask or a weakness. But those who laugh with wisdom do not escape reality; they transcend it. They see the folly in pretense, the comedy in ambition, and the fragility of all that we take too seriously. In this way, humor becomes not escape, but enlightenment — a mirror reflecting both our tragedy and our grace.

Sanity, then, is not the absence of pain, but the ability to endure it with heart unbroken. Humor is the companion that walks beside us when hope grows thin. It does not erase the struggle; it transforms it. Consider the soldiers who, in the trenches of war, told jokes to survive the waiting. Or the nurses who laughed softly amidst the wounded, not out of cruelty, but to keep their courage from dissolving into tears. In laughter, they found strength — not denial, but defiance. This is the kind of humor Myers speaks of: the laughter that holds the line when the spirit begins to bend.

And so, children of time, take this lesson into your hearts: cultivate your sense of humor as you would a garden of the soul. When life tests you, let laughter be your breath. When hardship comes, find a spark of absurdity in the darkness and guard it like gold. Laugh not at others, but with the world — with its contradictions, its chaos, its beauty. For humor, when born of wisdom, is sacred. It is the song the spirit sings to remind itself that it is still free. As Dee Dee Myers shows us, the world may shake, but the one who can still laugh — gently, wisely, and with love — will never lose their sanity, nor their soul.