Day Thirty-One: laughter

Word of the Day: laughter

Image of the Day: sunset through bare-branched trees

Token of the Day: set of 5 mini-notecards from the Tate - "The Lady of Shalott" by John William Waterhouse

There is in each of us
a deep well of laughter
the possibility of joy
that can flood our being
until there is more than
we can hold, until
we are soaked through
with delight.
The more we tap
into this well,
the sooner it is refilled.
This is the laughter of angels,
unicorns, stars and planets.
God rejoices to hear
the music of our joy!

I wrote the above on one of the notecards and gave it to Gail to take to work. It came out of me and on to the card just as i've transcribed it above.

My next thought was of "Laughter Through Tears" which is an album by Oi Va Voi (do look them up and have a listen! I've just added the album to my Amazon Wishlist as it's been sitting in my basket for ages!). When i looked up the phrase i discovered that it is a reference to the work of Sholom Aleichem who wrote numerous short stories (most famously "Fiddler on the Roof") about Jewish life. Early critics focussed on his characters laughing through their tears. Sholom Aleichem’s last will and testament implored that we remember him only with laughter… If you haven't read any of his stories do have a look in your local library, secondhand bookshop, or ask me if you can borrow my lovely hardback copy!

I read the Metro going to work on the bus today and was bemused/entertained to read the following: A couple who went to see a comedy that promised to make audiences 'laugh until they throw you out' were asked to leave the theatre – because they were laughing too much. The production was “Bouncers” and it was at the Drill Hall, Lincoln. It seemed rather unfair to throw people out for doing what they were supposed to do!

Interestingly though there is something "too" liberated about laughing loudly and for more than a few seconds for us British. We get embarrassed, irritated or wonder if we're being laughed at... Or is that just me? I almost always assume that if someone is laughing then they're laughing at me, not with me, not because i'm being intentionally funny but because they are poking fun at me. It is not a pleasant feeling to live with. I know i should perhaps have a tougher exterior, or be less obsessed thinking that everything is about me but i'm just being honest - i'm not there yet!

My sister Emma has the most fabulous capacity for laughter, it is truly a gift. Once started she can laugh until tears are streaming down her face and if our Uncle David is present then the two of them will keep setting each other off and their laughter is definitely infectious. This is different from the voyeuristic, cruel laughter that i feel comes from the endless number of TV programmes which show amateur footage of people and animals having accidents, getting things wrong. Slapstick is one thing but laughing at someone else's expense is another... Ok, sermon over.

Sitting on the bus coming home i kept hearing chuckling, a baby giggling and gurgling sounding so perfectly happy, so delighted to be alive that it was difficult to believe it was real! But she was. She was in a pushchair and she and her mum got off at the same stop as me so i said to the mum how lovely it was to hear such a happy baby. Oh, she replied, she’s like this all the time, an absolute delight...unlike her older sister who’s a moaning besom (pronounced bizzum and meaning, in Scots, among other things “a term of contempt applied to a person, gen. a woman; some times to a woman of loose character, sometimes jocularly to a woman or young girl”) and is in tears every day. Perhaps you know me well enough to realise that i was immediately feeling for this older sister and wondering how things would work out for them in the future...

Anyway, where does that pure delight go as we grow older? How do we reconnect with it? I have experienced laughter yoga and laughter therapy and got a lot out of both of them but wonder how i would feel about them at times when i'm feeling low or particularly anxious.

Sacred clowns are another form of therapy which i first learnt of during a stay at a convent in Surrey. This is what they do:

Through the medium of the clown, we can explore our emotions; by stepping into the magical inner space of the sacred clown, we discover the world of the imagination and the joy and childlike innocence of a playful spirituality. When we touch emotional awareness, we start to be liberated from our fears and a sense of clarity is born. As we gain a greater sense of who we are, we may discover a deep potential for creativity.

It sounds good, it sounds essential! After all, research has shown that laughing can help in:

• lowering blood pressure
• reducing stress hormones
• increasing the muscular system
• boosting the immune function by raising levels of infection-fighting T-cells, disease-fighting proteins called Gammainterferon and B-cells, which produce disease-destroying antibodies
• triggering the release of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers
• producing a general sense of well-being

And theBible holds this to be true aswell. Proverbs 17:22 states ‘A cheerful heart does good like a medicine: but a broken spirit makes one sick’.

Holy Fools such as Francis of Assisi, Shakespeare’s Fool and other apparently comic characters in history have turned out to hold the wisdom that is beyond the rest of us "serious" bods. So perhaps i need to learn to laugh, not through the pain and the tears, but instead of them...

I'm not sure. I think i need to feel the whole range of emotions, be able to identify them and feel them appropriately but just add more laughter into the mix!