Comedy or Tragedy?

Look at cinema; check out the comedies that we all love and adore. From the Three Stooges to Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day to Identity Thief; every comedy we watch is just a revision of someone's tragedy. Is getting hit with a plank of wood actually hysterical? Not really. Is having the worst day ever something that I strive for? Nope. How hilarious is having your identity stolen by a psychopath woman? Uh....no thanks?

The only thing that differentiates these situations from being a comedy or a tragedy is --

-- PERSPECTIVE.

I always tell people that when I start laughing about things that aren't funny that things are really intensely bad. "If I don't laugh, I'll cry" and "If she started crying for everything she had lost, she may never stop crying" (Hotel Under the Sand by Kane Baker). I don't want to be a miserable walking sack of sadness, so I flip the script on my "tragic episodes".

Today I was looking through my bank statements and saw that I have been charged $10.99 for a service that I don't have. For several months this has gotten past me. I went to cancel the subscription and it wasn't anywhere to actually be found, so I decided to call my bank and ask them to just decline the charge moving forward. Thankfully I talked to a woman who had this very thing happen to her from the same company (ROKU!) on a much bigger scale (over $300!!!). As I was talking to the lady at the bank I told her I didn't really care if it was refunded, it was my oversight that I didn't see it, but could she please stop them in the future. Her response was "oh girl, we're getting that money back!"

I waited on hold for 40 minutes while we went through all the stuff - I showered while on hold, made a cup of coffee, cleaned the living room, daydreamed of how scammers live with themselves. She came back on the line and said "so, I found how they have been charging the account" and she explained the most absurd thing I have every heard on. A token. Some how, some where, I made a purchase somewhere and Roku took the liberty of adding on a service that I would never be able to actually use!

Scallywags!

Scoundrels!

Tom Foolery!

My response could have been outrage and instead I responded with "Do I need to go find King Chucky Cheese to give him this magical token to get my monies back?" She laughed, I laughed, she explained that she was just going to do magic on her end and the call ended with resolution and comedy.

Not every situation can be this grandiose. Not every situation ends in humor and positivity, I know that. And I definitely don't want to live through the lenses of toxic positivity. But comedy is just tragedy with slightly demented outlook and sense of humor. And I'm all for it.

My life has been a series of unfortunate events that have led me to be able to help a myriad of people from different walks of life. And if I couldn't laugh, I'd cry.

Also, check your statements.