Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Patrick Ellis
Laugh
Rob has asked me to reflect on “Laugh”. Who doesn’t like to laugh? Who doesn’t get a smile on their face when they listen to a little kid in the throws of a big fit of uncontrollable belly laughter? Laughing is such an important and positive force for our mental health.
Prior to Covid, we found humor is so many places. When our kids were small, I loved to read to them and create over the top voices for the characters in their books. They’d be rolling with laughter, and asking me to either keep reading, or start over. They, in turn, couldn’t help but make us laugh at the usual antics of childhood.
Of course, other folks can make us laugh too. Who doesn’t enjoy a good comedy? OK, honestly, I was never a big fan of the sitcom, but they certainly entertain millions of others. For me, I can’t honestly stop laughing when I watch the antics of the “boys” from Top Gear. Something about that dry British humor. My wife, Marian, will turn to look at me sometimes when I’m watching - somewhat befuddled by what I just found so funny. That often pushes me further over the edge!
So often though, we would continue to find humor with family and friends when we would gather for a holiday, dinner out with friends, or having folks over for a BBQ in the back yard. The opportunity to share stories and entertain each other always involved laughter. Half the laugh was often in the retelling of a story that most of the people in the room had already heard. The punchline was a shared joke. It didn’t matter if there were 10 people there who had already heard the story. As long as there was someone new, it could still bring out the laughs in everyone.
There could be laughter when we were at church as well. I can remember several occasions when the Christmas pageant could put us into fits of laughter. My youngest played the “Inn Keeper #1” for a couple of years, and he just loved to entertain us all with his quick and booming declaration that “ We have no room for such as you!”. He, especially, enjoyed delivering that line when his brother was playing Joseph! And whoever designed that camel costume has provided us with tons of laughs since its debut a few years ago.
During this time of Covid, there have been long stretches of time where finding the humor in the situation we have found ourselves has been tough.
The tension of the unknowns in March and April. The longing for contact we all felt as the calendar flipped to May and June. The disturbing feelings we all felt when political and racial tensions built up over the summer.
I’m writing this on Saturday, October 10th. Today is World Mental Health day. I expect that there are more folks suffering with mental health issues now than six months ago, and I’d suspect that you probably would guess the same.
We all need to reflect on the importance of laughter and what we can do to give ourselves a break from the unworldly events that have surrounded us since March.
Laughter is medicine. It can distract us from our troubles, raise our spirits, and help us bond with others. The fact that it is so much more difficult to spend time with folks who aren’t in our bubbles means that we need to find new ways to connect and make each other laugh.
The Sunday phone call to the connect with relatives has been replaced by group zoom calls, or socially distant visits at a park. Let’s be sure to find some of those stories we can share just as we did over the dining room table. We can still make everyone laugh, even if we’re at least 6 feet apart, or in our own little window with 5 other little windows on Zoom.