AARP the 9 Intense Experiences by Brian Vaszily

Author:Brian Vaszily
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Published: 2011-02-18T00:00:00+00:00

Intense Experience #5

Laugh It Off

Laughter is an instant vacation.

—Milton Berle

At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.

—Jean Houston

With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.

—Abraham Lincoln

When people are laughing, they’re generally not killing each other.

—Alan Alda

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Ima.

Ima who?

Ima author, I hope you like my book.

Okay, maybe that didn’t floor you. But kindergartners love it! They’re an easier audience, though: according to Dr. William Fry, an emeritus professor of psychiatry at Stanford University and an expert on the relationship between laughter and health, kindergarten students laugh an average of three hundred times per day. Adults, meanwhile, laugh only about seventeen times a day. Yet although there certainly is a lot to laugh about in the kindergarten years, life only gets far more absurd and amusing as we grow older—if we maintain a healthy perspective to see it that way. This is one of the most poignant statistics I’ve ever encountered, which confirms that adults are running themselves ragged, cramming themselves with mediocrity, experiencing spiritual constipation, and taking everything far too seriously.

Almost everyone has heard the saying “Laughter is the best medicine,” and while some might argue that Viagra is even better, the saying holds immense truth. As usual, though, just because something makes perfect sense when you read it or rationalize it doesn’t mean it is being put into action. Again, the average adult laughs only seventeen times per day, when at least three hundred opportunities are available—and probably many more.

Recall a time when you’ve recently laughed. Or better yet, here’s a joke that might do the trick for you now:

A man who was called to testify at the Internal Revenue Service asked his accountant for advice on what to wear. “Wear your shabbiest clothing. Let him think you are a pauper,” the accountant replied. But when he asked his lawyer the same question, he got the opposite advice. “Do not let them intimidate you. Wear your most elegant suit and tie.” Confused, the man went to his priest, told him about the conflicting advice, and requested some resolution of the dilemma. “Let me tell you a story,” said the priest. “A woman, about to be married, asked her mother what to wear on her wedding night. ‘Wear a heavy, long, flannel nightgown that goes right up to your neck,’ her mother replied. But when she asked her best friend, she got an opposing opinion. ‘Wear your sexiest negligee, with a V-neck right down to your navel.’” The man protested to his priest, “But what does all this have to do with my problem with the IRS?!” “Simple,” said the priest. “It doesn’t matter what you wear, you are going to get screwed.”

It feels good to smile and laugh, doesn’t it? It’s a powerful and delightful way to blow away all of those ashes of challenging and stressful situations that would otherwise build up into rust and crust inside you and make

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