I used to be funny.

I used to be able to tell a story, and people would be falling out of their chairs laughing.

Now, I don't have any interest in being funny. I feel more poignancy-inducing than hilarity-inducing.

Erma Bombeck once said, "Humorists can never start to take themselves seriously. It's literary suicide. "

I don't take myself seriously--seriously has been taking me.

However, dear Ms. Bombeck also said, "If you can't make it better, you can laugh at it."

And that is what my sister and I do. I am certain that people think we are horrible or heartless or even completely nuts, but we have faced so many heartbreaking things in the last five years, and we have laughed to stay sane.

Which leads me to people who have survived much, much worse than we have--Auschwitz, seeing their children die, war. I admire their resilience and their determination.