Short Stories From 10 Years Ago – January 5, 2004
Laughter
Short Stories From 10 Years Ago – January 5, 2004 – A smile is one of the easiest ways to bridge the distance between two people. Culture, language, gender and age melt away – a smile is a universal signal that opens the door to further inter-action, brightens a day, offers reassurance or encouragement and indicates approval.
A dazzling smile can win hearts and cement relationships. If a smile can do all these things, then what of laughter? Can you remember the last time you laughed until your sides ached and tears ran down your face? Pure unadulterated joy, chuckling, enjoyment, fits of giggles, mirth, merriment – the sublime and the ridiculous. Call it what you will, nothing soothes the soul, both of the person laughing and the listener, quite like rich peals of laughter.
Laughter is written about in songs and poems, scripted in movies, shared with people we love and those we hardly know, rampant in comedy clubs and on T.V. talk shows, the ice breaker in tense situations, the backbone of the sit-com, the norm around the water cooler and the saviour of sanity the world over. We are unique amongst living creatures, in that we can see the humour and the absurdity in the life experience and laugh about both.
Laughter has saved me in my darkest moments and cheered me in my life more times than I can count. Just another of the innumerable things that make us human, rescue us when our pain is too deep to comprehend and enable us to recognize our human foibles when we see our behaviour in another.
It lets us know that we’re being too serious and lightens the heaviest tasks when we feel we can’t go on. So the next time someone tells you to “lighten up and laugh a little” – take them at their word – for they have your best interests at heart.
Learn to laugh at yourself and you’ll never be alone in life You’ll be able to share one of the richest experiences known to us all and in turn, pass it along. The world will be a better place!
