Just for Laughs

Sitting in the hotel restaurant in Rotterdam, four of us, laughing at something I’m sure slightly cheeky. The waiter came to clear the plates and remarked at how she loved the sound of laughter- our laughter. And I thought for a moment how quiet the rest of the world seemed. Was laughter escaping from the planet? Was there a leak, a crack, a furrow or a change in how we are experiencing life? Are we laughing as much as we used to, as much as generations may have laughed before us? Even comedies don’t seem quite as funny. Have you heard any good jokes lately? Can you remember the last time you had a really good belly laugh?

I thought of the scene in Mary Poppins when they sang, “I Love to Laugh”, and how my mother loved to sing that song. She loved to laugh at just about everything. When I close my eyes, I can still see her laughing. She would laugh until she cried. She loved ‘Benny Hill’ and ‘Monty Python’ and chuckled whenever she even thought of them.

We’ve all read about the health benefits of laughter and yet the world feels so somber, so quiet, as if there is a leak. Laughter is said to be able to alter both our dopamine and serotonin activity. It helps us relax and enjoy life. It reduces our stress and increases our energy. In general, laughter helps to increase our emotional well-being. I’ve read that the average four year old laughs up to 300 times each day- the average 40 year old….only somewhere between four and seventeen. And now I’m wondering how often the average 65-year-old laughs? What’s happening as we grow older?

Did you ever have that experience that you couldn’t sit next to a certain person at say a church service, or a faculty meeting, or an assembly- because you knew that just sitting next to that person was going to make you laugh uncontrollably-to a point that you tried to hold the laughter back so hard that it just kept spilling out of your pursed lips as your body shook? It felt so worrisome and embarrassing not to have control. But what happened to that feeling? Now-a-days I can sit next to anyone without worry. Where did that laughter impulse go?

Certainly, the political landscape and current world struggles and unrest bring us to a place of pure dismay-it’s totally understandable-yet I think this thinning of the comedic landscape may have come even before all of this recent conflict. Could it be part of the evolution of consciousness – are humans shedding a layer of joy on our way up the evolutionary ladder? Are we forgetting how joy is a vital part of the human experience?

Remembering the Pixar film “Monsters, Inc.” I believe the premise was for the monsters to scare kids and capture screams and use that energy to power the city. Perhaps we can instead capture laughter, smiles and unbridled joy and use that to power our town, our country, our world.

I think it would be wonderful if we all made an effort to laugh more often- find things to laugh about- revisit our favorite comedies, share jokes and favorite stories that make us laugh. Seek out happiness. Put on our favorite music and dance in the living room. And if we can, share that joy and that laughter with the people around us – and who knows maybe we too can power our own towns and villages with the power of merriment and joy.

"You don't stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop laughing."

-- Michael Pritchard