On Laughter

Isn’t there a saying about laughter?  Laughter is the best medicine?  I wonder if doctors ever prescribe it.  You know, after listening to a patient describe their ailment(s) I can just see the white-coated physician pull out their script pad and with the most serious face begin writing.  I can imagine the doctor scribbling furiously on the pad before tearing the sheet off and handing it to the patient who looks at it expectantly.  Undoubtedly, confusion rises on the face of the ailed one as the words are read:  Laugh More.  Laugh Often.  Laugh Daily.

Could you imagine it?  And what if that person were more intentional about finding the humor?  Seeing the funny?  Being the silly?  Would they feel better? 

I’m not trying to over-simplify.  I realize there are real physical, emotional, spiritual, economic, and countless other problems that are not simply solved by laughter. Yet I wonder. . . would laughter help?  Don’t get me wrong.  I tend toward the serious.  Sometimes,  I get so caught up in the tasks before me that I forget to lighten up and be silly.  To laugh.  To enjoy the moment. 

I think we all have that special laugh that roars up from our belly.  You know the one that I’m talking about?  The laugh that starts kind of quiet but then gets louder and louder and by the time you are done you are grasping your stomach and saying, “oh, stop, I can’t laugh anymore. . . it hurts!”.  

Kids seem to have this laugh more freely than adults.  Just this weekend we heard Charlie and Chanelle laughing hysterically in their bedroom.  Chad and I heard it and mentioned how cool it is that they play together so well.  After awhile they beckoned us to come and see what was so funny and we walked into their latest discovery.

They had discovered that turning a fan on over the vent in the wall would make balloons float in the air.  Their excitement was infectious as they “raced” their balloons and kept score of whose balloon was the fastest.  They were far too excited for me to get a good picture, but I could not help but be touched by their joy of this discovery. 

I find that I often forget to take time to really, really laugh.  I think as an adult some of us I get so caught up in the details and the to-do’s that real, genuine laughter is all but forgotten.  This weekend I was reminded of how good it feels to laugh from the belly. 

Things like pausing in the store to play with the extra large stuffed animal, rather than quickly saying no and rushing by it.

I tried to convince Chad that the baby needed this “little” guy, but he wasn’t “buying” it.

Or things like leaving the dirty dishes in the sink and running outside when you see the smiles of the neighborhood kids playing outside the window.

This weekend I remembered that real, genuine laughter truly is the best medicine.  And while doctors wouldn’t prescribe it, perhaps they should.  Who knows?  Maybe our medical bills would go down.

A sense of humor… is needed armor. Joy in one’s heart and some laughter on one’s lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life.

-Hugh Sidey