I'm glad your glad that u went and sounds like u had a good time so that's great. U deserve a good time. Hugs.

Hugs Muji, it is a good feeling to be able to laugh outloud, I am glad you went too. It surprises me sometimes when I feel depressed, but something on tv comes across and makes me chuckle, lately for me it has been MASH reruns...Hah! Getting out more has been one of my goals too, and by myself on the bus I have interaction with other people which I believe has helped me in my PTSD journey, just little conversations...helps me feel part of life a little. More Hugs

OMG, that's good. When I think about that, it makes sense! I've been on a "plane in distress" and there's *no way* that guy was really that calm. For one thing, the stewardess threw up...

Glad you had a good time !!

My start in military communications gave me actual, formal training in how to do that calm voice while bullets and body parts are flying over your head. No easy feat, but absolutely essential to the job. Electronics make rude noises when you let your tones get too honest. An unofficial part of the training might have sounded allot like the comedy routine you went to see.

Fast forward a decade or three to clergy I knew through missionary work, etc., and I garnered a few clues that most of the seminaries include similar training in their course work. Bet you've studied a bit of the phenom, too.

Ya gots me chuckling at the memory of the after-class comedy routines. . . They got especially colorful after the third beer. Thanks for the grin.

Yeah, arfie, hospital chaplaincy training involved some of what you say. At my Chicago hospital the staff actually made the chaplain be the guy who opened the ambulance door when it came in to the ER. First in line for the surprise, and the job was to maintain eye contact and not look at the mayhem so the patient would not go into shock. So the chaplain there kind of had to be super calm like you and airline pilots.

Oh, cheese, MASH is my favorite. Fr. Mulcahy was part of my inspiration to become a hospital chaplain my own self. And on my job years later I found out that gallows humor on MASH was really necessary, too. So I bought a whole bunch of episodes on VHS and DVD. Thanks for sharing that you like MASH, too!

Father Mulcahy on MASH kept me Catholic years longer than I otherwise would've been. He was the best!

Sounds great you got to the comedy show, reading your post made me smile. I am glad PTSD does not kill our sense of humour!! In fact I think it helps it.

Loved watching MASH too and many re runs :)

Thanks. Here's a link to a Youtube clip from MASH called M*A*S*H - Hawkeye - Through the Wisecracks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDNANfU6Q8E

It starts out with my dear hospital chaplaincy role model, Fr. Mulcahy, and then goes on to show the therapeutic value behind the show.

Glad others here are MASH fans, too!

My clinical therapy remains a bowl of alphabet soup in my damaged memory. The faces remain clear, so far as I can tell, but names, ranks and serial numbers remain lost in a cacophony of psychobabble. The longest running (1974/75) Army shrink was a man I have come to call, "Hawkeye." At that point, combat PTSD was still being called, "Shell Shock." He had served in the M*A*S*H units of Viet Nam and had developed an unsactioned specialty in, "Civilian Shell Shock." He declared me, "A victim of the other undeclared war on our city streets" and started putting me into group sessions with his shell shock patients.

I still don't remember his name, rank or serial number, but. . . I have wondered if I could find his name on the 1992 VA PTSD paper which took off like a bullet to become the (among other things) the official reason we are all gathered here today.

Just wondering. I am not sure it is important to me, personally. Professional detachment and all that jazz. . . In my strictly personals, he's just one of many pros in a 44 year deep bowl of "alphabet soup." Strictly nothing personal. Information purposes only.

I'm so glad you had such a good time Muji.... Laughter is great medicine

I read a serious of books that are mysteries by originally Lawrence Sanders... Archy McNally series... Another author took over writing them what Sanders passed

I just love them and they make me laugh... Whenever I am stressed out or upset about something I start reading one of these books again it never fails to lighten up my mood

I really enjoyed MASH as well.....xo

P.S. My "Hawkeye" remains Donald Sutherland. The movie was a HUGE hit in the Army ranks during my tour. The series had yet to reach overseas where I served. I didn't even know there was a series until it was in syndication. I bought my very first black and white TV in 1983. It was a yard sale special.

Alan Alda was adorable, but Donald Sutherland was believable to a gal in uniform.

Oh, yeah, arfie, I've got that one on VHS, too, the orginal MASH movie. Donald Sutherland is unbeatable as Hawkeye in that. I love how he would mix in whistling when he talked, just all of his funny mannerisms and comedic timing.

Alan Alda was a great 2nd, but yeah, Sutherland is THE Hawkeye.

When over time they changed actors in and out season by season, though, a newer addition that I really liked was Colonel Potter. Maybe it was because I lived in Missouri and in his backstory as a character was that he was from Missouri. Great old lovable crank.

??Colonel Potter??

Oh, you mean Bill Gannon. . . The police detective (Dragnet) who retired to become an Army Doctor. Yea, I liked him allot better than Henry Blake.

When I first started letting myself remember that Army shrink as, "Hawkeye," I first started trying to personify him with Doctor Friedman. Didn't work. Doctor Friedman was wa-a-a-ay too soft-spoken.

Yeah, Bill Gannon, arfie. The character he played of Colonel Potter on MASH was a huge departure from both the movie camp boss and the tv series camp boss before him. For one thing, Col. Potter was not incompetent. He was career Army, too, not a draftee who was hankering to get out of the Army. And he wasn't a philanderer like the camp bosses before him, as well as Hawkeye & Trapper John.

Big change in the story line. But somehow it worked. Not having had much of a father figure in my own family of origin, I responded to his character as fatherly in a positive way. That's a big deal for me, because I don't usually trust father figures in stories, or treat them like their corny or lame.

My favorite thing about Col. Potter was when he would shout "horsefeathers!" It sounded like blue profanity, when in fact it's a silly substitute I never heard anywhere else. But when he said it, you didn't laugh, you gave him some respect. Cool character.