By 
As you may have noticed, keeping perspective during divorce can be challenging. So over the years, I’ve sometimes used humor to help clients meet that challenge. Foolishness is not intended to downplay the miseries of divorce; rather, it is intended to alleviate them. And very often, it works!
Years after I first tried to calm an anxious client with silly jokes, I read about psychoneuroimmune research (yes, that’s a real thing!) Suggesting that laughter can promote health by reducing stress and can even stimulate the immune system. With that in mind, my book on divorce procedures has multiple choice questions at the end of each chapter that include several silly answers along with the correct one. The questions are designed to reinforce important concepts … and produce equally important laughs.
Try answering the 10-question quiz below. If it lightens your mood a bit, consider finding some more laughs by searching for some of your favorite funny TV scenes or movies online. Save them for viewing in one of those days. It will be good for you in more ways than one!
1. The term “intellectual property” means
A. A house with a Smart Car in the driveway
B. What they gave the day your spouse’s attorney should have called to report that he was ill.
C. An elite gathering place such as a museum, library, opera house, or Starbucks
D. The product of a creative or intellectual endeavor that has value or income-producing potential.
2. One of the best places to find a good divorce attorney is:
A. A yellow pages display ad with a head shot large enough to tell if the attorney really Will fight for your rights!
B. His divorced Uncle Billy’s website, StrangleShyster.com
C. His divorced Aunt Gladys’s website, StrangleBilly.com
D. A local attorney or other divorce professional who knows which divorce attorneys have earned the respect of their colleagues and family court judges.
3. “Current value” is
A. What you did at Stub Hub selling your Aunt Eunice opera tickets for Christmas
B. What the Buddhist says in the work he gets from meditation
C. Today’s dollar value of future monthly pension benefits, calculated to allow an “apples to apples” comparison of pension value to property that can be divided now
4. Alimony, but not child support, is deductible for the payment because:
A. A senator complained so much about paying alimony that Congress created an alimony tax deduction just to shut him up.
B. A major political taxpayer divorcing reminded her congresswoman that the Constitution guarantees tax breaks to major political taxpayers for whatever they want
C. Child support, unlike alimony, is considered a parental obligation and therefore does not need to be encouraged with tax deductions.
5. “Interest and penalties” can be used as:
A. One way the IRS punishes us for not understanding divorce tax rules that only a few accountants and a handful of attorneys actually understand.
B. A timeline of your marriage’s decline
C. Incentives in a severance agreement to encourage prompt payment of support
6. The Latin term pro bono half:
A. A tribute band to U-2
B. A Latin term used by lawyers to try to confuse laymen.
vs. A Latin term that lawyers use to try to hide the fact that other attorneys provide free legal services
7. You can conquer “black robe anxiety” (fear of courts and judges) by:
A. Hugging the tiger
B. Taking the tiger by the tail
C. Being smashed in a karaoke bar and yelling “Eye of the Tiger”
D. Overcome your obsession with the tiger and go to the local courthouse to familiarize yourself with court procedures and help you prepare for your own big day at Judicial Funhouse
8. When visiting your local courthouse, you may find that you are seeing a lawyer question a witness when:
A. The lawyer is more obnoxious than any of the Real Housewives of New Jersey, with the possible exception of Teresa.
B. The witness begins to speak in tongues
C. The witness does not recognize his own signature on his own tax return and asks if he can take a nap.
D. The attorney asks primarily “leading questions,” allowing him to make most of the testimony simply by asking the witness to agree or disagree with the fact or conclusion contained in the question itself.
9. Modern courts have the following in common with the castles of Merry Olde England, where our court system originated:
A. Not so cheerful figures dressed in black who sit on high, deciding the fate of the people.
B. Even less cheerful guards at the entrance.
C. “Trials by Ordeal”
All previous
10. The legal term “pendente lite“in Latin means:
A. “Cheap necklace”
B. An ornament for your Pendant Holiday tree
C. A popular beer among court clerks.
D. “Pending litigation”, a term used to designate requests and court orders entered temporarily in a family court case.
Even if you don’t feel like laughing during your tofunny divorce, try at least to take breaks from it. Visit a yoga class or meditation group, watch a movie, go for a hike, or just stay home and watch your favorite Too cute fart clips.
You owe it to yourself and to those around you, especially the little ones who depend on you to stay stable during the storm.