When I was eleven, my friend Rocky Wagner came over for a sleepover.
You can't really get into too much trouble when you're eleven. (That comes later.) But we did our best anyway. We raided the kitchen. We snuck out the window. We got into my parents' Cold Duck. (Not bad.)
Around 2 a.m., however, my Mom startled me when she flicked on the hallway light just as we were creeping in the front door and I spilled a bucket of tadpoles in the foyer.
Exactly why I was carrying a bucket of tadpoles around at two in the morning eludes me now. But I vividly recall a couple hundred of them wriggling around on the floor - and that my mother was not amused.
At least, she wasn't then. Now, apparently, it was hilarious. She practically tears up every time she tells this story. And she remembers every detail. ("They were pollywogs, not tadpoles.")
Funny how time changes our perceptions.
My friend Rodney, for example, has a foot that is badly scarred. When he was walking to school in first grade, a woman driving by ran over it. Aware that she had hit something, she backed up to get a better look and ran over it again. She then got out of the car, set Rodney on the side of the road, and sped off.
You hear this story and want to be appalled. But you can't. Because the way Rodney tells it - with his hangdog expression and deadpan delivery - you end up busting a gut instead.
If we only knew how we'd look back on our troubles someday, maybe we could laugh at them now.
As the British poet Samuel Butler said, "A sense of humor keen enough to show a man his own absurdities, as well as those of other people, will keep him from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those that are worth committing."
Science is proving that laughter really is the best medicine. A recent study done at the University of Maryland Medical Center shows a good laugh can lower your blood pressure, protect your heart, improve brain functioning, elevate your mood and reduce stress.
Laughter is a workout for your diaphragm, as well as your respiratory and facial muscles. It tones intestinal functioning and strengthens the muscles that hold the abdominal organs in place. (Who couldn't use that?)
Hearty laughter can even burn calories equivalent to several minutes on the rowing machine or exercise bike.
And the alternative? As Henry Ward Beecher said, "A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs - jolted by every pebble in the road."
Moreover, studies show that distressing emotions - anger, anxiety, stress, depression - are often related to heart disease. The quickest relief - cheap, effective and readily available - is a good laugh.
Laughter relaxes us, connects us to others, and enhances our ability to fight disease.
So lighten up. Yes, the economy is bad. You may have more than your fair share of personal problems, too. But as George Bernard Shaw pointed out, "The world does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh."
If the folks in your household aren't exactly filled with mirth right now, try renting an antic movie like "Arthur," "Airplane!" or "Young Frankenstein." (Sorry, my humor isn't terribly highbrow.)
If you're a reader, let me recommend "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" by Bill Bryson, "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris, or "Carry On, Jeeves" by the master himself, P.G. Wodehouse - all guaranteed to elicit great gales of laughter.
Stand-up comics can also provide welcome relief when life starts feeling like one damned thing after another.
You can check out a local comedy club or catch a great comic on video. Some of my favorites are Rita Rudner ("My grandmother buried three husbands - and two of them were just napping"), Steven Wright ("I spilled spot remover on my dog. Now he's gone"), Gary Shandling ("They say oysters improve your sex life, but it hasn't worked for me. Maybe I'm putting them on too soon") and Jeff Foxworthy ("Changing a diaper is kinda like opening a birthday present from your grandmother. You never know what's inside but you're pretty sure you're not gonna like it").
Humor is a powerful, emotional medicine. It lowers stress, dissolves anger and unites families. More importantly, it reminds us that our troubles may not be as earthshaking as they appear.
As the Zen monk Shunryu Suzuki said, "When you can laugh at yourself, there is enlightenment."
Carpe Diem, Alex Green/SpiritualWeatlth
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