By Father Eugene Hemrick | Catholic News Service

Agitated over all the bizarre happenings in today's life? How about reducing them to satire and enjoying the ironies they produce.

Consider that even though we have time-saving air travel and superfast automobiles, we find ourselves frequently in endless lines and in stop-and-go traffic with cranky horns. Ironically, our so-called speedy life more often than not is filled by idling and a hurry-and-wait existence.

Smartphones should be called superphones because they help save lives, keep us in contact with dear friends, and in many cases save money. Ironically, they also often turn loved ones into strangers even though they may be nearby.

Even if people walk side by side, they might as well be miles apart because people are glued to the phones instead of being glued to the person next to them.

Smartphones are the latest addiction with which compulsive chatterers need to fill their day. Their melodious rings may be music to the ear of some, but they don't sound so sweet to those who have to endure the ill-timed annoying sounds coming from them.

A while ago, what some called home "entertainment centers" were truly an enjoyable form of entertainment. The bad side of them was that they produced an army of couch potatoes. Generations grew up sedentary, only knowing how to glare at screens.

Also consider that some feel we've reached the heights of freedom of speech because anyone is able to post on the internet whatever comes to mind. But not everything that is posted has worth and in many cases, it may not be true. It also may be used for evil purposes.

Music is intelligence in that it mimics speech and its ultimate purpose is raising the nobility of the human spirit. Yet much of today's speech, unfortunately, is cacophony. It is an affront to intelligence and especially to dignity.

Championing human rights, multiculturalism and solidarity offer amazing promise for the future. Ironically, we still face their age-old opponents of self-righteousness, racism, intolerance, bigotry and narrow-mindedness. These are death blows to progress.

These are enjoyable ways to understand the absurd and it reminds us that, as the Book of Ecclesiastes says, there is a time to laugh.