The dynamics of humor are very interesting at our house. Don has a great sense of humor, but very dry and quiet, so if you don't listen carefully, you'll never hear it. Deanna, also, has a great sense of humor. She enjoys a good joke and laughs readily and heartily. She gets the nuances of humor in a way that the boys may never be able. Like the time Daelyn was jabbering nonsense at the table. I looked at him for a while, then asked gently if he had had a fall on his head that I didn't know about. Daelyn just stared at me, but milk spurted out Deanna's nose like a fountain. She's very tuned-in to humor and listens for it in every conversation.
Dane is my quiet child. We're not sure if he gets most of what happens around him. I suspect it's all going in, he's just not reacting (very like his father). Once, when he was only 4, we were driving down the street. I had resigned myself to the fact that he must have a learning disorder and was a little "slow", at least compared to Deanna, when he commented that one of our neighbors had a different air conditioning company than us. I quizzed him about this comment. He responded that the truck sitting in their driveway was different from the one that visited us. It had been a solid year since our air conditioners had been serviced and I was floored that he remembered what the truck looked like. Add to that the number of service trucks sitting in driveways, and the fact that he even noticed the truck, and I was astounded.
"But, son," I pressed further, "how did you know that truck was from an air conditioning company?"
"Oh, that," he responded in his slow, drawling style, "I saw them carrying in the condenser a few days ago."
We decided that the only thing "slow" about Dane was his speech patterns. Obviously, he had a brilliant mind and noticed everything, he just didn't feel compelled to share all he observed, unlike a little girl I knew.
Dane's that way with just about everything. If he gets our jokes, or even hears them, is any man's guess. And Daelyn is still a little too young to understand humor, unless it's slapstick, which we don't go in for real big at our house. Sissy's our bastion of humor.
About a year ago, Daelyn was talking at the breakfast table about the Trinity.
"Okay, Mama, so there's three people who are all part of God - the Father, the Son, and the Homely Spirit."
Deanna snorted before she fell off the bench. Daelyn looked puzzled, I grinned, and Dane hummed quietly. When Deanna finally stopped laughing enough that she could resume her meal, Dane asked me to explain what was so funny.
"Daelyn said 'homely Spirit', not 'Holy Spirit'."
"What does homely mean, anyway," Dane asked further, trying desperately to understand why Deanna and I had spent the last 5 minutes cackling.
"It means 'ugly', son," I told him.
Dane eyes got big around. His mouth got even bigger in the shape of a giant Cheerio.
"OH!" was his simple reply. No laughter, no other comment. But we knew he got it. Deanna smiled from across the table and nodded at me. Our sweet, quiet Dane. Maybe someday, he'll learn to appreciate humor - at least, the humor used by our family.
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