Exploring the Comedy and Tragedy in Life: A Perspective Shift

Ever wondered how humor can be found in the most mundane or even tragic aspects of your life? Join us as we take a leap and explore how our collective cultural backgrounds shape our perception of humor, making us laugh in the face of adversity. Your host, Tommy Heitz, shares his unique insights on the importance of not taking life too seriously. We delve into the art of seeing the comedy in our tragedies and how this balancing act enriches and adds depth to our daily life experiences.

As we move further into our enlightening discussion, strap on your thinking caps as we delve into the reality-shaping power of perspectives. How do cultural differences contribute to misunderstandings and how important is it to keep an open mind to truly comprehend different viewpoints? Tommy emphasizes the power of conversation and choice, and how these mold our lives. He also shares his thoughts on the subjective nature of art, and the resemblance it shares with humor. So, let's journey together into this deep exploration of the delicate balance between comedy and tragedy, and discover how our perspectives shape our reality.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Do you ever lift your head up from your phone, look around and think to yourself my God, everything is weird. Well, we do A lot. This is the Observation Station, a unique, entertaining and hilarious podcast. If we observe it, we talk about it. Anything and everything, anything and everything. Let's get weird and let's have some fun. This is the Observation Station and now your host, tommy Heights.

Speaker 2: 0:47

Hey, what's going on there. Thanks for joining me on another episode here of the Observation Station. I'm your host, tommy Heights. Today we're going to be diving into a topic that's as old as humanity itself, and it's going to be the comedy and tragedy of daily life. You know, life has a way of serving us both laughter and tears often in the same dish. So sit back, relax and let's explore this duality that makes our life so incredibly rich and complex.

Speaker 2: 1:16

The first segment today is going to be the comedy of daily life. Let's start with a comedy the comedy of daily life, those moments that just catch us off guard and make us laugh until our bellies ache, like when you're in a serious business meeting and someone's phone goes off playing the chicken dance ringtone, or when you're trying to impress somebody on a first date and you trip over absolutely nothing. So it's these moments that remind us not to take life too seriously, because we're only here for a certain amount of time. It's made very apparent when, right now, I'm 29 years old. Soon enough, in February, I'll be 30 years old. People say, oh well, when you turn the big 3-0, the dirty 30 or whatever it is, that's when you're getting to be a real adult or whatever it is. You know, everybody has their own way of seeing what age depending on if it's 50s, the new 40s and whatnot. Just take it as day by day. Things need to be funny and humorous, because then you're just going to live a boring life. That's not what anybody wants to be. Living is just a dull, bland, blah, blah, blah life. This is all about making it where it's a game. So don't take things too seriously. It's not all here having to be completely militaristic even though when it comes to business, that's what you have to be but it's all about having just a little joy. Don't be rigid all the time.

Speaker 2: 2:47

And then the other aspect is the tragedy of daily life. But then the moments that make up the pause and reflect of the fragility of existence is these tragedies that happen to us. It could be something as simple as missing an important deadline at work or as heartbreaking as losing a loved one. These are the moments that remind us of our vulnerabilities and our human limitations. So you have both the yin and the yang in life to say okay, there's the good, there's the bad, just like when the tide comes in, the tide has to go back out.

Speaker 2: 3:24

Looking at things in the 50-50 version may not always just say, hey, it's black and white and here in the middle is the gray, though there needs to be a balance in what you do every single day. Maybe you need to be serious and sometimes just lighten up. So the way it is of the duality is fascinating is how closely comedy and tragedy are intertwined. Think about it in the same situation. That makes one person laugh and it could take another person to hear the same thing and it makes them cry. It's this duality that adds layers to our daily experiences, making them richer and more nuanced. So, from a cultural perspective of the duality is universal, but also deeply influenced by our backgrounds.

Speaker 2: 4:13

So in Hispanic culture, for example, humor often comes from the struggles and challenges of daily life, while in many European cultures humor can be more dry and situational. Could give you an example of Monty Python's and the Holy Grail Some of those movies. I didn't understand the dry humor. Now, as I get older, I can appreciate the jokes to see oh, this is what they're meaning by that. Before I was just like, well, this is kind of boring. You know bland humor. It's not even that funny until you understand it, but that's just like anything. If you don't understand it, nothing's gonna come out of it, because it's just a bunch of like Charlie Brown's parents talking wawawawawawawawawawaw, and it's nothing going on there.

Speaker 2: 4:56

And humor can be where we perceive it to react on the life's up and downs. It's just all the things that you look at and say how am I going to perceive it? It's like art. Art is in the eye of the beholder. You might see three red dots on a white canvas and you're like, well, what the hell is this? Three red dots here? This is just some shit. And then it's like, oh well, this is the Trace Junto's Rojas from Sergio Ramirez he is a post-modernist some shit like that that you hear on South Abbey's and it sells for $12 million. And you're thinking what the hell is going on here?

Speaker 2: 5:37

Those are the different ways people find. You know, if someone wants to part with millions of dollars for something that's just like three red dots, or you know just two lines that are black on a white canvas, then so be it. That's the way that people have to see things. Is that you're not the same person as the guy next to you, so just because you say, hey, look, this is the funny thing, that guy might not find it funny. Maybe there's an experience that he or she had experienced that makes it where that brings back a bad memory. On the other hand, if you have a lot of funny things that happen, even if they're kind of like, you know, maybe bad to say, oh my God, I lost my this. But then I realize that this is not so important. You know, there's a million different combinations of the stories, though the funny parts are sometimes, maybe a year or two years after, when you're like, well, hindsight's 2020, and you find funniness in it, but at the time it wasn't so comedic.

Speaker 2: 6:36

Look, everybody has to have a certain goal and if you don't have a goal, then you're going nowhere. You're just spinning on a circle like a hamster, not going anywhere, but the same place you were yesterday, the day before, the week before, and so on and so forth. That's living a non-existent life. That's just having it where you're just kind of a vessel, going in and out on the motions, not making anything happen. That's not the way things should be going. You should have it where it's like okay, how do I figure out what in the hell I was put here to do? Make it funny when sometimes things are boring because that makes things go quicker. That's how I was in doing factory jobs and you just kind of would talk into your neighbor over there about some fun stuff while you're doing your work. You're still concentrating, but it's monotonous. That way you could just have it where you're joking back and forth about stuff you did over the weekend and just time went by faster. Luckily I'm not doing the hard labor jobs anymore and pass that for now.

Speaker 2: 7:34

But everybody needs to make things better for whatever situation they're in. If you're driving a truck, if you're doing this, if you're doing that, make it better for where you're at today so that in the future more people want to talk to you, hang out and have good vibes that are being passed back and forth through the conversation. The things that now I'm getting older to understand is maybe don't have it where You're so opinionated to tell people these are your opinions. Maybe just keep some to yourself. This is my perspective. Again, other people can have their perspective. The more that is put forth in the sense of saying well, I know that there are some bad things that are going to be happening, let's just make it where it's not going to be so impactful, because I've been constantly in the dumps. So Take a look at it like this you have a tragedy right? Okay, I'll give you an example having it where maybe you lose your job. Now that is a pretty big tragedy, though.

Speaker 2: 8:36

What is the comedy? Just how much shit was happening at that job. Thinking to yourself Well, I put my heart and soul into this, and that's just kind of hilarious how the Time, effort and hours you put into a company no matter if you show up on time, you're making them money, doing what you need to do X, y, z they fire you To see the. The humor in it at that stage is not very prevalent. You're not gonna be like, oh my god, this is hilarious, I got fired. That's what's considered a tragedy.

Speaker 2: 9:08

Say, two years later, you see that that company gets some kind of Bad press to say there was a lot of scams going on there. Maybe they were embezzling some money at the top. Who, who knows? Just something that it comes out of the news that Many clients that they were servicing have now dropped from them because they've heard of some scandalous Stuff that's been going on behind closed doors. It could be a slew of things. It. There's many different ways of looking at this of they're going bankrupt anything.

Speaker 2: 9:42

So from there you say, okay, well, that's hilarious, because at the time when you lose your Livelihood it's not funny. But now you're like thinking back, like, thank god, I have another position, because, think about it like this if you had put all your time and effort, said that this is the job that I need to be at for years and years to come, you put two more years into a company that would not have served you, no matter how hard you worked into it, because at the end of the day, it is now a company with bad reputation in the market. You just wasted two more years of your time. So you look back you think, oh my god, that's so funny that you know I did this, that and the other. Look at how they ended up and you think to yourself Was it me? Why would they fire me? I did everything, I showed up on time, I was making them money, never had any problems with anybody.

Speaker 2: 10:34

So All about perspective. Perspective is reality. It's another thing that once I get older, you know having it. Where you meet people, sometimes the first impression is not what you wanted to put out there, but it's what was out there. You can't take it back unless you got the men in black pen and you flash it on them and they forget stuff. Maybe you have it where something you were saying didn't come out correctly. It's all about just having it.

Speaker 2: 11:05

Where you loosen up because it is gonna be funny, where you try to say something to maybe like I'll give you a perspective here of something that's funny that you don't think of it like this. It's just like some sayings in the United States. Other countries might not understand because they take it literally. I was having somebody from another country say oh, we're going to be going to do this, you know, like a fun outing I just think a name of a fun outing and I said, oh my gosh, you know that sounds awesome, you don't have to tell me twice. And like no, no, I was just telling you once because I wanted to see if you wanted to go and that's a saying to say I can't believe we're gonna be doing this. That's awesome, you know, you don't have to tell me twice. Like and in the United States you would understand that, but other countries may think of that. I was like oh no, I'm not trying to repeat myself, which is the comedy.

Speaker 2: 11:58

So many times, it's the eye of who you're talking to. Maybe speaking to somebody in California about Donald Trump is not the same as speaking to somebody in Alabama about Donald Trump Two different perspectives. Or you can have it to say oh, what is the political view of oil in a blue state and what's the political stance of oil in a red state? Two different perspectives. These are the things I'm learning. Maybe they have two different perspectives. What's right and what's wrong in business can be very black and white in certain aspects, though the reality is in the eye of the beholder, and if the beholder has the keys to what you need, you might need to play the game. See, that's what needs to be done.

Speaker 2: 12:47

They like this topic. Talk about that topic. If they like to have it where they speak about certain things, just listen to them, speak about it, because if you're having it where at least you give the illusion of being interested in whatever the person is saying to you, that puts you in a favorable position in their eye to say you know, the guy actually knows what he's talking about and you didn't even talk about anything. You're just sitting there listening to them talk about it and you're just reiterating it. It's like you're listening to them and you're saying what they said. That's just a reinforcement to say, look, this guy, I think he knows what he's talking about and you're just repeating back the same stuff. I mean, that's the comedy, you know.

Speaker 2: 13:27

So take the yin and the yang, the 50-50, make it a hundred percent. That's what you're missing here Not having so much problems all the time. If you have problems all the time and end up dying, then you live a shitty life. The whole point to doing things in life is to say you know, this is kind of funny, can't believe we have to do this, or man, that's kind of sad that that happened to this guy. But you know, it's funny that I was trying to do that job or something like that and I didn't go into that industry and now I'm in this industry. So that's kind of funny how things work. And it may not always be funny in the sense of ha ha ha. It's like, oh my god, that's maybe a sense of just a conversation saying hey, that's funny that you said this. Buh buh, buh buh.

Speaker 2: 14:16

Always keep an open mind. The more open your mind is to see different perspectives, the better that your world will get, because if you keep a closed mind, all the conversations you're listening to will not be even worth your time, because you already have a set foot in the ground, lying in the sand to say, no matter what this guy is saying, or gal, I'm not going to listen to him. Well then, how do you know? Maybe this is a business partner or endeavor that some segment of the market is looking for and you're not listening to what this person is saying about a segment of a certain business avenue that you haven't explored yet. Take the time to listen to people. You have two years in one mouth. You listen twice as much as you speak. You might actually learn something. So there you have it, folks. The comedy and tragedy of daily life are two sides of the same coin we all have to spend as we navigate through the journey called life.

Speaker 2: 15:08

So thank you for tuning into today's episode of Observation Station. I hope it gave you something to ponder as you go about your day. The next episode is going to be speaking about journeys and making sure to tune in. This Friday We'll be exploring the art of decision making, so how choices shape our lives. Trust me, you won't want to miss it, and that's a wrap. Thank you for listening. Until next time. This is Timie Heit signing off.