the philosophy of haha

When was the last time you laughed so hard you cried?

 

The last half a dozen years or so, I haven’t belly laughed anywhere near as much as I should.

 

Apparently seven hugs a day is the minimum requirement for a happy and healthy life; I would add to that at least three body-rocking tears-inducing belly laughs a week.

 

Two old friends, out of the blue, emailed me today about this blog. One was the most sweetest kindest praise I’m sure I don’t fully deserve (but will happily accept as awesome motivation), and the other was concern over the state of my mental health (“bloody hell, your blog’s a bit depressing.. are you ok?”) – made me chuckle.

 

The thing is, I used to be funny. I used to be able to write with a comedic bent. I used to make people laugh. When did that stop happening? When did I become so serious?

 

So now I’m trying to remember the last time I laughed until tears rolled down my face. I’m trying to rediscover the funny.

 

Oh, I’m in luck – I remember. At work, of all places. My alarm didn’t go off and I woke up five minutes before I was due to start. I threw myself out of bed so fast I was still half asleep and my right leg was still fully asleep, leading me to walk as though I had cerebral palsy, banging into every wall more than once as I stumbled sideways into the bathroom.

 

That, coupled with the shakes, made it.. let’s just say, entertaining, to try and get my legs into pants. I didn’t even try and attempt to wield a hairbrush.

 

I burst into work half an hour late, panting, pillow creases still adorning my face, hair like a madwoman, and started telling the story of my morning, giving a visual demonstration of my physically-challenged walk, which made me and thankfully my very understanding boss laugh so hard we cried.

 

Why can’t every morning start like that?

 

Have you ever been around someone with an attack of the giggles? How hard is it not to join in? In 1962 three schoolgirls in Tanzania got the giggles which spread to 2/3 of the school population before going on to infect another 14 schools and countless villages, only ending about two and a half years, and 1000 giggling people later. Now that’s contagious.

 

Let’s forget the fact that laughter reduces pain, releases endorphins, brings down stress levels, pumps oxygen through the body and increases blood flow; it’s just so damn fun – why don’t we do more of it?

 

And from now on I solemnly promise to try and throw in a couple of chuckles among the darkness.

 

 

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.

-- ee cummings