To Die From Laughter
I’ve just realized that January is half over and I have never made a New Year’s resolution about anything. Most resolutions center on new diets, getting more exercise or finally seeing that special place that’s always been high on the bucket list.
But earlier this month I had an epiphany while at the grocers. I had rounded a corner and a wonderful woman flashed me a beautiful smile that would warm the heart of even the most mean spirited person I know. Then it hit me, that smile didn’t cost the woman anything and it brightened my entire afternoon.
So I have given resolve to pass that smile forward to others as often as I can and to laugh more. Not just chuckle but really laugh. Doctors report there are seven health benefits to laughter. It lowers blood pressure, reduces stress hormone levels, improves cardiac health, boosts immune cells, creates a sense of well-being, it’s a great workout for your abs and wonderfully releases endorphins that are the body’s natural pain killers to aid chronic aches.
Laughter is either too complex to analyze or too simple, and I don’t know which. It’s best to do it and enjoy the experience. There’s a therapy to laughter like no medication in the world. A Simple smile warms someone’s day, a grin enhances your heart, and a good laugh renews the soul.
I can attest to the pain relieving benefit personally. Sometime back I was involved in a strenuous project with three other gals and it turned into a very long day. By the end I was really hurting and feeling every year of my age. So were the other three. One of us made a remark that didn’t come out quite right and bordered on inappropriate but blessedly it was funny. One of the gals went into peals of laughter and it proved to be contagious to us all. After several minutes of hilarity we gathered ourselves together and I suddenly realized I wasn’t really hurting anymore and the expressions of the others told the tale that they too felt refreshed.
That incident reminded me of my two paternal Aunts. Never in my lifetime have I ever known two women who could find more things to laugh about than they could.
Every Sunday afternoon after the dishes were done and the men gathered in the front sitting room or out on the lawn, the women headed for the long back room on grandma’s house. Here they exchanged family news and letters they had received from a distant relative that was living too far to make the trek back to Big Buffalo Creek for visits. It was never long until Aunt Sella would relate some funny story from their childhood and Aunt Hazel would chime in. They were off and running, playing off each other like Laurel and Hardy. Soon they had everyone laughing so hard that sometimes tears streamed down faces and sides ached.
To me they never seemed old like some of my elders did and I can still recall my Mother’s good mood as we headed home after such a day. The laughter had relieved tensions and stress and she was ready for another week.
For some people laughter seems to come easily. I suppose one could define them as having laughter loving spirits. They seem to shower everyone around them with spontaneous eruptions of mirth and laughter that appears without purpose but results in making everyone within its range feel so much better.
Of course we’ve all heard the “canned laughter’ when we watch situation comedies on television. We’ve become so accustomed to it that watching an episode sans “manufactured hilarity” would undoubtedly seem as if something was missing. Yet, I can attend an engaging play being performed live and I don’t have to be prompted to know what is amusing and when to laugh.
The renowned Bill Nunn, founder of Missouri Life magazine once wrote: “as important as it is, why was the instruction to laugh not included among the Ten Commandments, something like, “Thou shalt not be too sober,” or if that is too ambiguous, it could read, “Thou shalt laugh often and at thy self, if thou wouldst be wise.” Nunn concluded with “God probably excluded it from Moses’ tablets because he couldn’t enforce it. So instead he give us plenty of reasons for laughter, what we do with them is our choice.’
I heartily agree with his thoughts, especially the part that we need to laugh at ourselves. Having the ability to have a good horse laugh at our own behavior or circumstances keeps us rooted in reality.’ Over the years I have stumbled and fell over my own feet and once I hit the ground I feel so utterly ridiculous that I sit there laughing at the situation.
I seem to laugh more as I get older, just not because I know I need to but I seem to see more things that need to be laughed at. As I watched the candidates in the Presidential race this past year it’s the only response that made sense.
Can you imagine the Donald and Kamala pausing and just having a real honest to go, from the gut laugh? The whole world would probably have joined in for at least one whole minute and things would never have been the same again.
Even if the world doesn’t go along with this idea, I intend to keep my resolution to laugh more and especially at myself. I think this is a resolution I can keep. After all, no one has ever died from laughter.