LAUGHTER

(Originally published Sunday, August 17, 2008)

Although I am considered to be a serious kind of person, no one enjoys (well, except for two other people I know) a good laugh more than I do. In private, my laughter may include any number of antics, which I know are quite unseemly, including but not limited to, uncontrollable bellyaching, floor rolling, and fist pounding. I often laugh to tears, and sometimes until I get terrible chest and side aches. However, I do have my limits. For example, I would never carry on in a restaurant with such behavior. Usually this kind of foolish carrying on occurs in my comfortable surroundings. When I'm not in intimate settings, I am able to constrain myself, somewhat. Although, while I am well contained in public settings, some people are so humorous that even maintaining aplomb is difficult. I recently caught up with a friend I hadn't seen in a good while and as we talked, we fell right into our 'old ways' of fun. Our conversation soon spiraled into a string of jokes, and it seemed that the more we tried to curb it back, the funnier the scenario became. Before long, we were mindlessly laughing at each other harder than we had at the jokes. I managed to keep it together, but at times it took everything in me to keep from breaking.

I'm sure that at some point we've all seen or heard something so hilarious that no matter how much we try, we could no longer hold the laughter in, especially once we've noticed someone else trying to hold his laughter, and most likely sharing our thoughts. We may try to look away, but inevitably we catch the other person's eyes, at which point we either both bust open at the seams or quietly sniggle to tears. Of course, adding to the 'funny' is watching people pretend that they either didn't see it or that they are not laughing at that thing. And like two anxious teenagers you can't wait to get outside to ask "Did you see that?? OMG!"

I think holding laughter is most difficult when you're in an environment in which it is totally inappropriate to laugh out loud (i.e. a wedding, a funeral, a church service). These are all settings in which I have found myself having to hold back laughter and keep a degree of stoicism. I usually do pretty well unless a friend sitting next to me either elbows me really hard in the side or just starts twitching in his seat.

In the poem "What Is Success?", one of my favorite poets/ philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson encourages us to "laugh much and often..." and I think I'm pretty consistent at it, even when I'm not trying to be. There is just too much funny stuff in this world, and some days I just enjoy laughing myself into a tizzy fit! I guess this balances out my serious side.