Science and mathematics have never been my strong suit, but I am convinced the reason the Earth doesn't fall out of orbit is that you and I each spend our days carrying it on our shoulders. We each lug around one quadrillion, seven hundred fifty-six trillion pounds on our back. It is no surprise we have lower back problems. God forbid someone trips.

Think I am wrong? Tell me how you feel on those days when nothing is working for you.

What does your sense of humor look like on these hard days compared to your best days?

The absence of laughter and jokes are the first indication that I am worried about the problems of life and sensing the weight of the world on my shoulders. Family and co-workers are quick to notice something is amiss if I am silent.

Standing in the checkout line to buy necessities, knowing the check is going to bounce.

Pouring over the bills and trying to figure out how to make the money stretch for another month.

A broken heart as your child learns from another poor decision.

The grim diagnosis defines the date after the dash on the headstone.

The intensity of the struggle sucks the possibility of humor out of the room.

But, is that always true?

“As the day of the operation drew closer, it became more and more painful and frightening to contemplate,” wrote actor Christoper Reeve after his horse accident. “In spite of efforts to protect me from the truth, I already knew that I had only a fifty-fifty chance of surviving the surgery. I lay on my back, frozen, unable to avoid thinking the darkest thoughts. Then, at an especially bleak moment, the door flew open and in hurried a squat fellow with a blue scrub hat and a yellow surgical gown and glasses, speaking in a Russian accent. He announced that he was my proctologist and that he had to examine me immediately. My first reaction was that either I was on way too many drugs or I was in fact brain damaged. But it was Robin Williams. And for the first time since the accident, I laughed. My old friend had helped me know that somehow I was going to be okay.”

How do you fight to ensure your humor is intact?