On Reading: Laughter by the Books

From the editor: We are happy to welcome author Melinda Rainey Thompson to this column. I hope this piece will give you a taste of the delights you’ll find in her book that we are giving away over at 5 Minutes for Mom: I’ve Had it Up to Here with Teenagers. You can also read some of my favorite excerpts here on this site. Cyberstalk her at her blog and on Facebook.

I’m a writer. So far, I’ve written four books of humorous, non-fiction essays: Swag: Southern Women Aging Gracefully, The SWAG Life, I Love You – Now Hush, and a new release, I’ve Had It Up To Here With Teenagers. Humor is a good gig if you can get it. I think I have the best job in the world. Because I am a mom to three teenagers, I also work as a: short order cook, maid, laundress, chauffeur, psychiatrist, coach, nurse, spiritual advisor, and, occasionally, a prison warden.

I gave birth to three kids in five years. For a while, I thought I was losing my mind. I had one foot on the window ledge. That’s when I gave up sleep so I could continue doing my favorite thing: reading. Sure, I was a sleep-deprived Zombie during the daytime, but life is full of compromises. I was happy with the trade-off. I can’t remember a single day in my life when I didn’t read a book. I need to read to be happy—like I need air to breath, my teenagers to hang up their wet towels, and a secret chocolate stash in my underwear drawer.

Because I love to read, I read to my kids every day when they were too young to read to themselves. That was before they were embarrassed to hang out with me, of course. Back then, my bathroom sinks usually contained numerous, long toothpaste worms, but nobody remembers that now. We often ate bagels and bananas for dinner in order to finish one more chapter together on the porch swing. I read until my voice gave out. Nobody has rickets or anything, so it worked out okay.

When my oldest son went to kindergarten, his class wrote essays about their moms for Mother’s Day. I sat at a miniscule table clutching my cup of lukewarm punch, two butter cookies, and the four grapes my child served me carefully on a paper plate he’d decorated himself. I listened politely as other moms’ children described their saint-like mothers who, apparently, worked selflessly and tirelessly for various philanthropies and humankind in general. I didn’t roll my eyes or scoff openly, either, which is hard for me since I am naturally smart-mouthed.

“My mom is working on a cure for cancer!” one child claimed.

Wow, I thought. I hope she pulls that off.

“My mom builds houses for people who don’t have one!” another child read aloud.

I can’t even nail a picture on the wall without cracking the plaster like a giant sunburst, but good for her. It’s important to be gracious about other people’s attributes, I believe.

“My mom makes sick children better!” a third child claimed.

Sure she does, I thought grumpily, if you can get an appointment with her. I’d spent an hour trying to score a check-up appointment for my son the day before.

“My mom sews all my clothes herself!” another girl read proudly.

Who has that kind of time? I wondered. Isn’t that why God made Target?

Finally, it was my son’s turn to brag. I waited with cautious optimism. As any parent will tell you, you never really know what is going to come out of a child’s mouth. It’s like juggling with knives–risky. My son’s essay said: “My mom likes to read books and eat candy!” What could I say? I DO like to read books and eat candy. That’s the gospel truth.

I’m not going to cure cancer or build Habitat for Humanity houses or do anything that changes the world in a profound way. What I do is write books that make people laugh. My greatest reward as a writer comes when readers tell me that my books provided a few hours of welcome distraction from something awful in their own lives—cancer treatments, divorce, illness, or the loss of a job. One reader told me she read my books aloud to her mother in her last days of hospice care. Being able to make someone laugh in the midst of dire circumstances proves to me that I made a difference in the lives of those readers—if only for a few minutes.

I grew up to be a writer because I love to read books—beautifully written books in every genre. When I see someone reading my books in an airport, hotel lobby, or on the beach, I always pause to see if they laugh. If they do, I’m happy. I know I’ve done my job well. As for my other job—well, if my teenagers grow up to take care of themselves and their families and those less fortunate than they, I’ll have done my job well. If they go to prison, I’ll bring them brownies and good books to read.

Leave a comment if you can relate! Also don’t forget to enter to win your own copy of I’ve Had it Up to Here with Teenagers if you haven’t already.