There are all kinds of reasons to laugh. Sometimes we laugh out of embarrassment. Other times we laugh because something is witty. There are times we laugh to cover our despair.

I was reading recently about a man who awoke one morning to find a puddle of water in the middle of his king-size water bed. In order to fix the puncture, he rolled the heavy mattress outdoors and filled it with more water so he could locate the leak more easily. The enormous bag of water was impossible to control and began rolling on the hilly terrain. He tried to hold it back, but it headed downhill and landed in a clump of bushes which poked it full of holes.

Disgusted, he threw out the water bed frame and moved a standard bed into his room. The next morning, he woke to find a puddle of water in the middle of …