Falls can be serious business and should be avoided with due diligence. However, there are humorous aspects occasionally, especially where injury has been avoided. I have no quadriceps muscles in my legs whatsoever, so that when my knees bend more than just a little, they collapse and down I go like a sack of cement. Many winters ago as I was entering the lobby of the office building where I worked, I was rushing and taking long strides when my foot slipped on a bit of slush and down I went right in front of an elevator full of people. Two of my co-workers promptly stepped out and hauled me to my feet and one asked, "Do you always make such a grand entrance?" Fortunately, I was only shaken up a bit and we all had a good laugh about it.
When our son was young, he was sick to his stomach in the bathroom late one night. I went to see if I could be of any assistance but got dizzy and passed out. When I came to, I was flat on my back in the bathtub with my legs sticking out of one end of the tub and my head under the faucets at the other end. I had cut my forehead on the way down and there was blood all over the place. The 911 number was dialed and shortly two very puzzled police officers were standing in the bathroom looking at me. I started to laugh because I must have been quite a sight, unable to sit up because of weak stomach muscles and in winter pajamas with socks on my feet which were hanging over the end of the tub. Once I started to laugh everybody else did, too. The ambulance arrived and I was hauled off to the emergency room to have a few stitches installed.
The third funny fall occurred when I was cleaning the bathtub in our downstairs bathroom. I leaned over to support myself while cleaning the opposite side but missed the edge. My arm slid down and I twisted around and tumbled into the tub, landing on my back and unable to sit up. My foot hit the water faucet (cold, fortunately) on the way down and the water rushed into the tub, soaking me to the skin.
Fortunately, my wife Barbara heard the commotion and came rushing into the bathroom all aflutter. By then I was laughing so hard that she realized I wasn’t hurt. After she shut off the faucet and pulled me to a sitting position I managed to crawl out of the tub and went upstairs to change.
The moral of these stories? We all need to learn to appreciate the humor in a situation and to laugh at ourselves. Under the right circumstances, funny falls offer an excellent opportunity to do so.
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