Laughter

Laughter~Mandatory 


Is it even possible to go more than a day without laughing?  At all?  I might be able to go a day if I was really sick, painfully sick or sleeping kinda sick. That is the only way I can imagine that happening.


(Enjoy the fish-eye lens shots my niece took at Thanksgiving last year!  There's my brother's dog, George,  my brother and I and down a little further my sister.)


TV makes me laugh, the dogs make me laugh, Lord knows my roomy makes me laugh and in general everyone I talk with makes me laugh (leaving out the CSR people I have to deal with now and again).  Do I make other people funny?  Am I so peculiar that they can't help but make fun of me so I'll laugh at my stupid self?  Maybe I just chose funny people to keep in my life?  I didn't choose my mom, she makes me laugh. My sister makes me laugh and I didn't choose her.  My brother's pretty funny, my nieces are hysterically funny and if they are mixing it up with my kids and their spouses, a laugh riot will no doubt ensue and I didn't choose any of them.  So, no, didn't choose funny people, though the friends I have kept through the years are all pretty funny people, sometimes by mistake, but still.  I don't think I'm funny, I do crack myself up now and then, but generally, I don't think I'm funny.  I do think I bring out the funny in those around me though and I enjoy that.  


I read somewhere a few dozen years ago that laughter makes more wrinkles than frowning.  Is that true?  I kinda hope so, cuz I'm pretty wrinkled and I laugh a lot.  I wanna think it's because my face is far too busy pulling my lips back and squeezing my eyes shut in uncontrolled laughter to care that it is breaking down all the collagen that used to make my face smooth and wrinkle free.  There was no character in that smooth version.  I got me some seriously intense character now!


I don't think I have more than a handful of memories of conversations with any of my family that didn't include some good laughs.  It's what we do.  My daughter tells stories that have some grain of truth and then are just so exaggerated that even those who were there might not recognize the event, but they are hilarious stories and I love hearing them.   Listening to my son tell the latest activities of his kids or their latest funny story makes my sides ache, by the end.  Mom sees the humor in almost everything and then shares it with a feigned attitude of disgust.  Love it.  With my sister it will most likely be a grandson story or one of our youth.  The youth where she, the older sister rules over the spoiled and detested baby sister (me) and then ends with (while laughing) a most sincere apology for her horrid behavior.  Our brother loves to tell stories of how they tortured me just because they could and then how Mom would step in and 'save' me.  I don't remember being saved, but okay.  They are great and funny stories and told with such love and humor...


We all gave birth to funny people.  Seriously funny people who could possibly all have had careers in stand-up comedy.  A room full of them would cause some majorly aching sides and coughing from pure and gut based laughter.  


Long life and good health seem to be the rule in our ancestry.   Makes ya wonder, eh? Maybe laughter truly is the best medicine.  Most of us are not doctor freaks.  Most of us don't go unless there is a real problem we can't ignore and otc medication isn't helping.  We don't take particularly good care of ourselves, but we come from a long line of long livers, (nope, our livers are average size) and we come from a long line of people with silly and funny outlooks on life.  We come from a long line of laughers.


Rich history and a bright future, that is what I see when I look around me and it makes me smile, if not laugh-out-loud.


Jo