A Day in the Life of Natural Balance: Humor at Work

This is a true story.

It was early on a Thursday evening and I was home preparing dinner in my kitchen, when the phone rang. As I said, "Hello", a distinctly animated, Brooklyn-inflected voice replied, "Hi Linda, it's Denise, and I'm sorry to bother you but we have us a 'situation' heah (sic). So, here's the deal. There's a strong smell of marijuana comin' from the vents from the upstairs apartment. They're havin' a party up there! Oh my God, it stinkin' up the place...we have to do something!"

As I listened to Denise vividly lament about the possibility of some wild party taking place in the midst of our quiet, therapeutic environment, I was very somber and quiet with concern. Then it suddenly dawned on me what was happening, and that's when I burst into deep, side-splitting laughter, hitting the floor with weak knees from laughing so hard.

"Denise", I said very calmly trying to regain my composure, " it's not marijuana at some party above us...it's Dr. Zhai, (our beloved and much revered Acupuncturist), heating up the Chinese herb called Moxa, for his patient tonight."

Denise was incredulous, replying, "what the...?" I explained, "yes, I know, it does have a strangely pungent aroma doesn't it?" Denise exclaimed, "Oh my God, Linda, it smells just like marijuana!". I immediately reassured her that it wasn't, and that it was a TOTALLY LEGAL, thousands-year-old Chinese treatment with herbal mug wort that is commonly used in Acupuncture.

I could picture Denise's wide-eyed, jaw-dropped face and I couldn't help it...I burst out in laughter again, as tears rolled down my cheeks. Then after laughing my head off at her expense, I confessed to Denise that the first time I had encountered Moxibustion, as it is correctly known, I too believed that someone was having "a bit of a party", and I then walked around madly looking for the perpetrator, only to find poor, innocent Dr. Zhai busy at work performing Acupuncture.

When I told Dr. Zhai what I had been thinking, HE laughed at ME, with his twinkling eyes, amused at how we westerners don't know much about ancient ways, and he remarked in his endearing Chinese accent, "Ah, oh Rinda, yes, that's funny".