Laughter is Good Medicine

As different as we all are, we have many things in common. I believe that no matter who you are, you probably like to laugh. Laughing releases some type of endorphins to the rest of body and it makes us feel better. The problem is that when we are blue and feeling down, that last thing we want to do is engage in activities that would make us laugh. We as humans sometimes just want to wallow in our self-pity . . . okay, maybe it’s just me.

Sometimes, I just need to enjoy a stupid comedy just so that I can laugh. I find that it depends on what mood I’m in beforehand as to what type of movie or television show would do the trick.

For instance about 11 years ago when we were living in West Virginia, we had a home group that consisted of people in their twenties. I was in my thirties. My husband thought that a hike would be a great group activity that would be fun. How he can use hike and fun in the same sentence is beyond me. I on the other hand am not a hiking-kind-of-girl. I grew up in Brooklyn and to me roughing it is no room service. For whatever reason Tom really wanted me to go on this hike and convinced me I should go. He assured me I would have a good time.

This was to be a ten mile hike. What I didn’t know was that the first five miles was downhill. Did you know that if you go downhill you have to eventually go uphill to get back to your car? To make matters worse we get to this part of the trail where the ledge we were walking on had a missing section to it. By missing I mean there is nothing to step on and it’s a long way down. The only way to get to the lake (our destination) was to hold on to a branch and jump across the ledge. That’s right I said jump. I was not going to do this. I was fine with waiting until everyone was done dipping in the lake. Tom convinced me again that I should jump and he helped me across. Can you sense at this point that Tom is not on my favorite people list.

I don’t know if you remember the song by Paul Simon, Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover, but on the hike back up the hill I changed the title and the lyrics to – Fifty Ways to Kill Your Lover. When I finally did make it back to the car I was so exhausted and everything ached in my body. My wonderful husband – who to my credit is still breathing – invited everyone back to our small apartment to watch a movie and eat pizza. Did I mention that one of the gals had her two huge dogs with her on the hike? Yep and the dogs came to dinner too.

I have a point to this story and it is about the movie we watched. It was a stupid comedy – Ace Venture, Pet Detective. The mood I was in beforehand was not a good one. I was beyond tired and ached all over. The only thing I wanted to do was soak in a hot bath, but here I was watching this movie. To my surprise I never laughed so much in my life. I loved the people in the group and I'm so glad it ended with such joy. I’ve watched bits of the movie years later and it wasn’t funny to me at all, but at the time it was the right medicine. I laughed and felt better and Tom got to live another day. I love you babe, you gave me a good story to tell.

© Nadine Z. 2006