To laugh or not to laugh, that is the question…
I was idling at the traffic light at the mother of all intersections (at least in our little corner of the world), waiting to accomplish a left turn while donating my allotment of hydrocarbons to the already befouled air of our little city and getting older by the minute, when a minivan pulled forward in the lane beside mine and changed the tenor of my day. On the rear hatchback was a largish sticker which read: “I’m marching to a different accordian.” I couldn’t control myself. I laughed out loud, somewhat altering the mental state of the drivers around me.
Did I mention that I live in a city of grimacers? These people are really repressed. The quickest way to a little personal space around here is to publicly laugh out loud about something you find humorous. It took me a little while to figure this out but now that I know, I’ve become a laughing fool. Okay, I’m lying. A little… It’s just that life is so darned funny…know what I mean? Dear husband and I laugh often. We don’t seem to ‘do’ crying very well. But laughing we’re experts at…
Our best laughter comes from watching the “Reduced Shakespeare Theater’s Complete works of William Shakespeare in an hour and a half.” We dose ourselves and anyone else we can grab regularly. We have introduced at least a dozen folks to RST in the past 8 months and we’re still going… Need laughter? Get RST’s tape or DVD from your favorite rental emporium or better yet, just buy it. You’re going to anyway after you see it… Even Her Sweetness has fallen under it’s spell and she and dad are the world’s toughest audience. Don’t worry about the Shakespeare part…believe me, it doesn’t matter. This isn’t your father’s Shakespeare! But it is the funniest thing you’ll see for a long time. The two Uncs got copies for Christmas from Her Sweetness. Believe me, she’s not cerebral…so don’t hesitate for an instant…get laughter.
The sonnys don’t care to sit too close to me at a movie theater because I enjoy myself so thoroughly. One hazy, hot and horribly humid summer day some years ago, younger sonny’s friend came over with a videotape of a movie he’d taped off Home Box the night before. The guys even invited me to watch it with them, so what the heck…nothing else going on, I did. It was too hot to move anyway. It was a horror flick. That’s what they said it was. Oh well…
It was funny!! It was “Evil Dead II.” I sat on the couch and laughed my head off. In fact, I laughed so hard I got an asthma attack. An all-out choking, wheezing asthma attack. And I fell off the couch! (I fell off a pulpit one time too, but that’s another story for another time…and I wasn’t laughing at the time either.) Anyway, I fell off the couch…I was laughing so hard it was hard for me to stay on the couch. I mean…that’s one funny horror-ible movie! Ever seen it? Oh, do..! When the flick was over, sonny’s friend said “I’m glad I brought that over to watch, but I enjoyed watching your mother more.” Well, there goes dignity out the window…
We determined that dear husband had to see this film too. He’d enjoy it.. So, after dinner we again sat down and watched “Evil Dead II” and once again I laughed so hard I got an all-out choking, wheezing asthma attack (and I had only just recovered from the first one) and almost fell off the couch for a second time that day. Dear husband enjoyed the film too but he didn’t have an asthma attack and he managed to stay firmly planted on that pesky couch. Lucky him!
Anyway, they say laughter is good for you. It’s supposed to be good for your health. I haven’t seen anything about laughter-induced asthma but I have seen a recent article in the paper about the benefits of laughing. Okay, I’ll go along with that. But I won’t pay you for the privilege! I mean…I read this thing and it sucked all the laughter out’ta me.
There’s a dude out there who is actually making money from telling people that ‘laughter is good for you.’ Yeah, really… According to the Associated Press reporter, Jay Lindsay, a guy by the name of Sushil Bhatia gets hired by businessess to give talks about and demonstrations(!) of …laughter. Boy, people must be really hurting out there if they have to be shown how to laugh. Yeesh! Bhatia says that “Laughing really matters. It relieves the tension and the stress.” No kidding, Sherlock..! I knew that for free!
So the article goes on to say that “laughter therapy is the path to good mental health and innovative thinking. Laughing provides an internal massage to the body while clearing the mind” according to Bhatia. Okay, so tell me something new and different…
This dude, Bhatia, leads laughter clubs(!) and he charges a corporate rate of $6,000 per day or $100 per private 45 minute session, with a minimum of five sessions. The article says “He forbids jokes during his sessions, explaining that the quality of the jokes tend to drcrease until no one’s laughing anymore.” Well, suddenly I’m not laughing anymore. The article goes on to talk about the healthy benefits of laughter, including weight loss and disease fighting. Let me tell ya, I laugh all the time and I don’t lose weight, I just keep gaining it. Gee, maybe I ought to re-mortgage the house and join a laughter club…d’ya think?
The article goes on to say that “different types of laughter have distinct benefits: A hearty laugh exercises the lungs, chest and stomach, Bhatia said. Meek laughter, a hearty laugh with a closed mouth and minimal sound, benefits the intestines. Humming laughter with lips closed exercises the lungs and abdominal muscles, he said.” Well, there you go, I probably didn’t laugh right…that’s why I gained instead of losing weight.
Darn. Now I’m depressed. I might never laugh again…
Did I mention that I live in a city of grimacers? These people are really repressed. The quickest way to a little personal space around here is to publicly laugh out loud about something you find humorous. It took me a little while to figure this out but now that I know, I’ve become a laughing fool. Okay, I’m lying. A little… It’s just that life is so darned funny…know what I mean? Dear husband and I laugh often. We don’t seem to ‘do’ crying very well. But laughing we’re experts at…
Our best laughter comes from watching the “Reduced Shakespeare Theater’s Complete works of William Shakespeare in an hour and a half.” We dose ourselves and anyone else we can grab regularly. We have introduced at least a dozen folks to RST in the past 8 months and we’re still going… Need laughter? Get RST’s tape or DVD from your favorite rental emporium or better yet, just buy it. You’re going to anyway after you see it… Even Her Sweetness has fallen under it’s spell and she and dad are the world’s toughest audience. Don’t worry about the Shakespeare part…believe me, it doesn’t matter. This isn’t your father’s Shakespeare! But it is the funniest thing you’ll see for a long time. The two Uncs got copies for Christmas from Her Sweetness. Believe me, she’s not cerebral…so don’t hesitate for an instant…get laughter.
The sonnys don’t care to sit too close to me at a movie theater because I enjoy myself so thoroughly. One hazy, hot and horribly humid summer day some years ago, younger sonny’s friend came over with a videotape of a movie he’d taped off Home Box the night before. The guys even invited me to watch it with them, so what the heck…nothing else going on, I did. It was too hot to move anyway. It was a horror flick. That’s what they said it was. Oh well…
It was funny!! It was “Evil Dead II.” I sat on the couch and laughed my head off. In fact, I laughed so hard I got an asthma attack. An all-out choking, wheezing asthma attack. And I fell off the couch! (I fell off a pulpit one time too, but that’s another story for another time…and I wasn’t laughing at the time either.) Anyway, I fell off the couch…I was laughing so hard it was hard for me to stay on the couch. I mean…that’s one funny horror-ible movie! Ever seen it? Oh, do..! When the flick was over, sonny’s friend said “I’m glad I brought that over to watch, but I enjoyed watching your mother more.” Well, there goes dignity out the window…
We determined that dear husband had to see this film too. He’d enjoy it.. So, after dinner we again sat down and watched “Evil Dead II” and once again I laughed so hard I got an all-out choking, wheezing asthma attack (and I had only just recovered from the first one) and almost fell off the couch for a second time that day. Dear husband enjoyed the film too but he didn’t have an asthma attack and he managed to stay firmly planted on that pesky couch. Lucky him!
Anyway, they say laughter is good for you. It’s supposed to be good for your health. I haven’t seen anything about laughter-induced asthma but I have seen a recent article in the paper about the benefits of laughing. Okay, I’ll go along with that. But I won’t pay you for the privilege! I mean…I read this thing and it sucked all the laughter out’ta me.
There’s a dude out there who is actually making money from telling people that ‘laughter is good for you.’ Yeah, really… According to the Associated Press reporter, Jay Lindsay, a guy by the name of Sushil Bhatia gets hired by businessess to give talks about and demonstrations(!) of …laughter. Boy, people must be really hurting out there if they have to be shown how to laugh. Yeesh! Bhatia says that “Laughing really matters. It relieves the tension and the stress.” No kidding, Sherlock..! I knew that for free!
So the article goes on to say that “laughter therapy is the path to good mental health and innovative thinking. Laughing provides an internal massage to the body while clearing the mind” according to Bhatia. Okay, so tell me something new and different…
This dude, Bhatia, leads laughter clubs(!) and he charges a corporate rate of $6,000 per day or $100 per private 45 minute session, with a minimum of five sessions. The article says “He forbids jokes during his sessions, explaining that the quality of the jokes tend to drcrease until no one’s laughing anymore.” Well, suddenly I’m not laughing anymore. The article goes on to talk about the healthy benefits of laughter, including weight loss and disease fighting. Let me tell ya, I laugh all the time and I don’t lose weight, I just keep gaining it. Gee, maybe I ought to re-mortgage the house and join a laughter club…d’ya think?
The article goes on to say that “different types of laughter have distinct benefits: A hearty laugh exercises the lungs, chest and stomach, Bhatia said. Meek laughter, a hearty laugh with a closed mouth and minimal sound, benefits the intestines. Humming laughter with lips closed exercises the lungs and abdominal muscles, he said.” Well, there you go, I probably didn’t laugh right…that’s why I gained instead of losing weight.
Darn. Now I’m depressed. I might never laugh again…
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