Laughter

I was thinking about the importance of laughter the other day. I was thinking that it is very important to have at least one good laugh a day as I was enjoying Ellen's antics. She is very good at spreading laughter which I think of as a kind of joy. She does so in a non-threatening, non-nasty or put down way. That's why so many people like her - they aren't afraid of her humor.
I know that health sources have been saying that laughter is important for good health for some time now. When I was a young know-it-all teen, I heard a comedian say he thought he had a very important job, making people laugh. My youthful position was that his job was not important. Real jobs like building roads, heading up companies, being a doctor were really important jobs and humor was just a fun thing that I was amazed people could make a living wage with. Ah, now my many years have made me wiser and much more appreciative of laughter.
Don't get me wrong. I have always loved to laugh and I am quick with a giggle, chortle or downright bellylaugh. I just didn't know how important it was to indulge in laughing until the lightness of youth turned into the responsibility of adulthood. Now I know that a laugh may save someone from doing something really stupid or dangerous or self-harming. If you can laugh at your situation, you control it more than it controls you and that may be a necessary thing so you can get a grip and move on. If we take ourselves and our lives too seriously everything becomes extremely important so even a small setback grows a large, dark shadow. If we can laugh at ourselves, we can see light; if we can see light, we can use it to find our way out of darkness.
I now respect those comedians who can look at life with that little twist that makes things funny, sometimes things that don't seem to be very humorous. Their view can make us giggle and give us the distance we need to hitch up our pants and get back to the seriousness of living. As Judy Collins sings, "Send in the clowns."


Your Laughter BY Pablo Neruda



Take bread away from me, if you wish,
take air away, but
do not take from me your laughter.

Do not take away the rose,
the lance flower that you pluck,
the water that suddenly
bursts forth in joy,
the sudden wave
of silver born in you.

My struggle is harsh and I come back
with eyes tired
at times from having seen
the unchanging earth,
but when your laughter enters
it rises to the sky seeking me
and it opens for me all
the doors of life.

My love, in the darkest
hour your laughter
opens, and if suddenly
you see my blood staining
the stones of the street,
laugh, because your laughter
will be for my hands
like a fresh sword.

Next to the sea in the autumn,
your laughter must raise
its foamy cascade,
and in the spring, love,
I want your laughter like
the flower I was waiting for,
the blue flower, the rose
of my echoing country.

Laugh at the night,
at the day, at the moon,
laugh at the twisted
streets of the island,
laugh at this clumsy
boy who loves you,
but when I open
my eyes and close them,
when my steps go,
when my steps return,
deny me bread, air,
light, spring,
but never your laughter
for I would die.