I grew up with Reader's Digest and one of its ongoing elements was called "Laughter, the Best Medicine." Often I would quote the quips and jokes, shouting them out from the bathroom where I was reading. Of course, Reader's Digest used to include "Drama in Real Life" from which I concluded that had I been in any of the situations described, I would simply have died - unable to crawl thirty miles through the desert with a broken leg after having been bitten by a den of angry rattlesnakes during the hottest month of the year when it was unusually dry even for the desert. But I digress.
Laughter, like an apple a day, is good for us. No one is exactly sure why. There have been numerous studies which suggest that laughter releases endorphins, a natural pain killer, that laughter increases oxygen flow, that it reduces chemicals associated with stress, that it aids the healing process, that it brings people together, on and on. If you read conjectures about the neurological source of laughter, there's absolutely nothing humorous about it (follow the link and focus on the section entitled "Laughter and the Brain").
One of my greatest joys in marriage is that Judy and I spend a lot of time laughing together. Sometimes we are laughing at ourselves, sometimes we are laughing at you, often we are laughing despite what is happening around us.
Evidently laughter is not all sunshine and happiness. My booming laugh has been known to startle babies into crying. Throughout history there are alleged cases of people dying from laughter - although oddly enough, the only cases I found were of men who died from laughter presumably while suffering an endorphin-rushing, pain-reduced heart attack or suffocating (so much for the increased flow of oxygen). [Click here to read "Laughter: The End of the Story" on my Effective Family Communication blog.]
Monty Python had a skit based on a joke so dangerous that it caused people to die - a joke that could be used as a weapon. I will note that one time I laughed so hard I passed out (there's more to the story, but you'll have to ask me about it).
You'll have to determine what to you is amusing. Hopefully someone in your life will share your tastes and can laugh with you. For good, clean family humor I recommend the stand-up comedy of Brian Regan (click the link to enter his site). His recorded show called "I Walked on the Moon" left me gasping for air (that is not a reference to the lack of oxygen on the moon for my cleverest of readers).
So today my encouragement is simple: Laugh. Choose to laugh. As long as you keep it under control, you should live to enjoy the benefits. Were I to author a comedy section for Reader's Digest it would be called: "Laughter, It's Worth the Risks."
