I’ve Been Here for 43 Minutes & I Don’t Feel Any Better

“I nag Mark Addison Kershaw. Every month. I nag all of Hubris’s Contributors, but I single Mark out for special attention. Because he makes me smile, always, and, many times, he makes me laugh. An aeon ago (in 2007, back when our daily demons seemed less numerous or toothsome), Stephen Colbert wrote: ‘Not living in fear is a great gift, because certainly these days we do it so much. And do you know what I like about comedy? You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time—of anything. If you’re laughing, I defy you to be afraid.’ Which is why I nag Mark, and why I am so happy, so wreathed with smiles, when his cartoons land (eventually, late) on my virtual desk.”—Elizabeth Boleman-Herring

Addison

By Mark Addison Kershaw

“I’m struck by how laughter connects you with people. It’s almost impossible to maintain any kind of distance or any sense of social hierarchy when you’re just howling with laughter. Laughter is a force for democracy.”—John Cleese, The Human Face, BBC Television (2001)

ATLANTA Georgia—(Hubris)— 1 June 2021—Editor’s Note: I nag Mark Addison Kershaw. Every month. I nag all of Hubris’s Contributors, but I single Mark out for special attention. Because he makes me smile, always, and, many times, he makes me laugh. An aeon ago (in 2007, back when our daily demons seemed less numerous or toothsome), Stephen Colbert wrote: “Not living in fear is a great gift, because certainly these days we do it so much. And do you know what I like about comedy? You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time—of anything. If you’re laughing, I defy you to be afraid.” Which is why I nag Mark, and why I am so happy, so wreathed with smiles, when his cartoons land (eventually, late) on my virtual desk. In a time of such horror and anxiety, Mark brings me a lady on a park bench with a sack of peanuts she has brought along to feed . . . the birds. Thing is, an elephant has shown up before her, instead of pigeons. This makes me smile. I look at each cartoon Mark sends me carefully. I study it. And then, I smile, or I chuckle. For the duration, I am not afraid.