Laugh in the Face of Angst!

Feeling overwhelmed today, like I am the stick person on the Scared Guy coffee cup I gave to my husband as a gag gift 25 years ago.

A general contractor with multiple houses in a variety of stages of construction at the time, my husband used to walk around his job sites with a cup of coffee. During the framing phase of construction, he frequently placed his cup on the cross braces of a wall that was under construction. As the drywall or exterior dry board was added to the 2x4 frame, the cups were often encased inside the walls. He lost a lot of coffee cups that way, and our household cup inventory shrank weekly. So, for Christmas one year, I gave him a large grocery bag filled with gag cups.

The favorite cup among them – and the only one we still have – is a Scared Guy design by Katie!, made in Thailand. A stick figure plastered across the side of the cup exudes myriad thought bubbles about life’s mundane and stressful occurrences, things like ‘first date,’ ‘last date,’ ‘taxes,’ ‘driver’s test,’ ‘screaming kids,’ ‘screaming meemies,’ ‘broccoli,’ ‘ozone layer.’ The handle is painted with a long list of ‘haha’s and ‘heehee’s. And the Scared Guy, in utter and unmistakable panic, urges, “Laugh in the face of angst!” On the bottom of the inside of the cup, a large purple bubble gets the last laugh: Ha!

In a house with three kids in diapers and two adults with full time jobs, two car payments, credit cards and very active roles at our church and in our community, the cup was a humorous reflection of our real lives. It quickly became the family treasure. When the kids brought coffee to this stressed-out mom in the morning, they invariably chose this particular cup to start my day with a smile.

Now, our adult children (who by the grace of God survived the angst of their childhood) have all called dibs on the cup after my husband and I are gone. We may have to stipulate a drawing for it in our wills.

But today, the cup still lives in our cupboard, where the morning pour usually is a cappuccino. Though the thought bubbles could now read more like ‘spilled milk,’ ‘garden weeds,’ ‘hip replacement,’ ‘staff meeting,’ ‘bunions’ and hearing aids,’ the message of the cup still applies: Laugh in the face of angst!

Thank you, Katie!