January 4 2014

Laughter. I'm talking about everything from a tiny explosion that escapes from tightly clamped lips and makes that airy, snorty "pfft" sound, to belly-aching, chest-heaving, shoulder-shaking, face-stretching unbridled paroxysms of passionate hilarity. Laughter causes a rush through the body, mind and spirit that would rival any drug or alcoholic potable. Laughter offers an escape that is better than any fantasy the mind can think up. When you break into bales of laughter, there is something that happens to the spirit. It lifts off. It looses its ties to things grounded in heaviness like stress, worry and depression. Maybe, if we keyed right into this, rather than prescription drugs such as anti-depressants to get us out of our fog, in the future doctors would be prescribing things like "get out and  play Cards Against Humanity with your friends for at least four hours a week." 

This is exactly what I did last night. I swear I haven't laughed this long, hard or heartily in a VERY long time. Funny thing I noticed about laughter is, it is more contagious than yawning. (Oops did I just make you yawn?) If you've never played CAH, part of the game involves keeping your choice of card--that is used to create a hilarious sentence--hidden until reveal time. So during the game while you are carefully considering your next play, you are laughing to yourself over your possible choices. I noticed each time I would laugh out loud while scheming, that inevitably someone else would join in my laughter, or I them, although we had no idea what the other was laughing about. This kind of curious sympathetic laughter got me thinking about the power of laughter to affect others around us.  Why was I, (or they) laughing at something unknown? I mused that it was a kind of joyful glee at anticipating the gift of something funny to come. The promise of more laughter, kept those giggle fires burning away. Also, another observation was that we did not want to stop playing the game as though we were addicted to laughter and needed the next hit, and the next and the next. Soon we were planning more trips to the "Opium" Laughter Den. My oh my what a powerful drug! 

I am reading a book right now about the different ways people mourn. Some cultures use laughter as a coping mechanism to get them through the mourning process. (Who says jokes at a funeral are in bad taste?) I think laughter is  under-rated in our culture. We have to be serious more often than not. I think that needs to be re-examined, studied and laughter needs to be integrated more as a healing module. Its power is not to be underestimated. 

My gratitude is for this great gift of laughter. Cheers to you. May you continue to be a huge part of my life in 2014. Also may I spread it around. Let's keep the people laughing and then maybe life would seem hugely better!