An American Comedy

Etymology
Middle English, from Medieval Latin comoedia, from Latin, drama with a happy ending, from Greek komoidia, from komos revel + aeidein to sing

a medieval narrative that ends happily
Dante's Divine Comedy

a literary work written in a comic style or treating a comic theme
the ancient Roman comedies of Plautus
a drama of light and amusing character and typically with a happy ending
a comedy about parenthood

the genre of dramatic literature dealing with the comic or with the serious in a light or satirical manner
compare tragedy
a ludicrous or farcical event or series of events
a comedy of errors
the comic element
the comedy of many life situations

humorous entertainment
nightclub comedy

As I age, I find less and less humor in the challenges brought about by life. I'm spending a holiday weekend at the home of a friend. She has back aches and muscle spasms in the lower half of her body. She walks with a walker that offers scant little assistance as an assistive device when ascending or descending the steps from her home to the street. She is in constant fear of falling or of losing her balance. In short, falling down is not funny and should never be a laughing matter.

While here I got to binge watch a season of Grace and Frankie, the story of two aging women who form an unlikely friendship after their husbands reveal they are in love with each other and plan to get married. I don't know what is worse about the story line; how strange the grown children are? how unaware the wives are that their husbands are absent? how self-absorbed the aging women are in their own development?

Stories like these make me reflect on my own life. I have never been unfaithful while in a relationship and I have also never tried to begin a romantic encounter with someone if I knew he was already engaged or committed. If that person wanted to be with me, that person would have to terminate his current relationship.

There are plenty of oddities in my life that don't involve the human relationship condition. Food, money, animal care, faith, spirit... I wonder about the family line and tribe into which I was born inasmuch as I think of becoming part of something else. Do I really need such a thing at this time in my life? Would my life and thoughts and feelings and visions be relevant in and around another group.

Going back to the original definitions of comedy, I feel angry at the notion of thinking about my life as comedy. It is not lighthearted and it is not serious in a way that it should be treated lightly. I think of my life as meaningful and purposeful and significant to me. I also think that my life will always be relevant. And as long as there is toxicity in it, there will be no comedy.