Laughter Is The Best Medicine, But Why?
Rick London
We use humor in our lives for a myriad of purposes. This motivation to laugh has its roots in ancient history (I have read). Since that was a few years before my time (but unfortunately not too many years before my time), I will have to take archaeologists word for this phenomena. I remember loving to laugh as a child. My mom was the "sense of humor proprietor" of our home, and making her laugh, was especially fun, as she was a tough audience. Especially when I was being grounded for something I'd done wrong, which was most of the time.
The basics of humor are the same as they once were, in a nutshell, one person's tragedy is another person's comedy, aka slipping on a banana peel, still holds true to a certain degree. But audiences have gotten tougher, savvier, and more demanding, and we actually should be. We live in a different world than our parents. We suddenly woke up in a world that was unpredictable. To say "the world has gotten more dangerous" or "the world's gone crazy" has become the norm.
Our generation is anxious. It has gone through everything from Viet Nam to modern day terrorism. What I mean by "our", I mean the fringe side of the baby boomer generation. We are survivors to a certain degree. We have seen more wars than any generation before us. Our choices are to be ambivalent, to laugh, or to cry. Laughing does not mean we are endorsing negativity. Quite the opposite. Humor is a way humans can cope under circumstances that seem to have spun out of control, which, does indeed happen.
Crying is healthy for the soul too. But laughter out of one's life can make it bleak and miserable. People go to therapy. Just because one has a sense of humor about life, does not make them immune from psychological services. But you can be rest assured it can be a deterrent for many. After all laughter, like running or walking is therapeutic. We release endorphins when we go running, and yes, even when we laugh.
In my early years as an adult, I worked in my father's real estate business. It was a thriving business, but not a happy one. I was the youngest there, and I felt my duty was to produce laughter, as, it was what I had done as a child. It was a kind, but very uptight group of co-workers. As in so many in most professional sales jobs, though there may be some altruism involved, money, or the bottom line is the focus. Don't get me wrong, I like money as much as the next guy. But I have keenly observed that, though there are plenty of very happy wealthy people, when people get into a business simply to make money, they end up highly disappointed. Hence I found myself surrounded by a lot of disappointed people who seemed to want to laugh, but could find nothing funny.
Finally, after many years of working, but hating the work I felt forced to do, I left the sales, and struck out on my own. I had read a biography on Walt Disney, and how he started DisneylandI loved cartoon humor, still do, am not a great artist, so recruited a team of excellent illustrators and launched my own cartoon. That was a decade ago. I still love doing it. Not only do I get to (occasionally) give myself a laugh, but sometimes others as well. When working at something you love, whether its making people laugh or not, will make you happier inside, and those around you seem happier. And I am better when when my soul feels happy and lighter.
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