I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together

by Bronwyn Doyle

Television, I must admit, played a significant role in providing my childhood mentor. More specifically, it was "The Carol Burnett Show." Yes, I grew up in a family that needed as much humor as it could get, and Carol Burnett—singer, actress, and comedienne extraordinaire—taught me two major life perspectives that I carry with me to this day: (1) Yodeling is good for the heart, and (2) Humor is a mind-altering substance.

Flashback to me age nine: I stand atop a steep snow bank in Anchorage, Alaska, palms cupping mouth, mouth wide, chin pointing upwards, and the sound of my best try at a Carol Burnett Tarzan Cry piercing the cold. After quite a few attempts, I find to my surprise that I can really yodel. I really can, I'm there, I'm almost there, just about...well, ok, maybe it'll take a while but it's a great release. So, to this day, I still make attempts to yodel like Carol Burnett. Try it. It's so fun!

Carol Burnett's name has become almost synonymous with funny. We've all heard the clichés: laughter is the best medicine; a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, etc. But clichés evolve out of truths, and to experience a cliché personally makes it meaningful. Burnett's brand of humor, which is glued in my memory, has helped me have that experience—changing my perspective and keeping me optimistic.

When I hear the words, "The Carol Burnett Show," I remember being 13 and laughing with my parents and sister at Burnett's character, Eunice, portraying the best about dysfunctional families; or Starlett O'Hara, in "Went With the Wind," wearing window drapes complete with curtain rods for shoulder pads. Now that, for me, is truly mind-altering because it's hard to laugh with your parents and bratty sister when you're a teenager.

I have since been further inspired by Carol Burnett through seeing her on the "Actors Studio," reading numerous profiles about her, and learning that she didn't have an easy, traditional childhood. Her mother and father were so alcoholic they couldn't take care of her. Luckily she got strength and character from a grandmother who raised her in a rundown apartment in Hollywood. Her signature ear tug at the end of her show is meant for her much-appreciated grandmother.

I think Carol Burnett was meant to be my mentor. She was in the right place at the right time for me (on TV when I was a teenager in a difficult family). She reached me with her humor and her wonderful open smile. And to top it off, her birthday is the same as mine! So here's an ear tug to you, Carol. It's time to go to the video store and rent some good old-fashioned comedy.

Bronwyn Doyle is a writer/musician/teacher/entrepreneur who is still trying to figure out what to do with her life. She lives in Seattle and is actively involved with Seattle Writergrrls.