Friday, June 1, 2012

The Laugher

Even if there is nothing to laugh about, laugh on credit.

Unknown
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Hello Ernie
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In my novel "Brian and Christine" the Navajo chief's wife is named Laughing Woman. Someone asks the chief if she laughs and he answers, "Well, she smiles a lot." She is a character who faces life with not only a positive attitude but an ability to see the funny side of things. Her laugh is always just below the surface.

As I was preparing to write this article I thought about some people I know and have known who can throw back their heads and enjoy a good laugh when something strikes them funny. Stuart in New York, AZ in Maine and Della wherever she is, came to mind right away.

I knew a college girl named Joy. I've written about her before. She was the most appropriately named Joy I ever knew. One could tell by the look in her eye that she was enjoying life and that a good laugh was a definite probability at any moment. She was a theatre major and even when she played serious scenes she displayed a light source.

There are good laughs and bad laughs. To laugh at life's absurdities isn't bad. To laugh at yourself is good. To laugh at other people, and particularly their mistakes, is not so good. To laugh because you have no other reason than that you feel like laughing is probably the best.

I don't laugh much these day, but then I was never a big laugher. I enjoyed other people's humor and used to tell a lot of jokes just to see them laugh. These days I'm looking forward to laughter, to humor, to joy.

The last time I remember having a good laugh was in the first reading of "Best Friends" a play I did over 10 years ago. It was a comedy, of course, and we in the cast had the first laughs as we began to prepare it and then to play it well enough so the audience could laugh, which they did.

I don't hear anyone laugh around where I live now. An occasional wicked giggle is about the best this neighborhood can come up with. I'm looking for a good laugh and a good laugher. If you know of anyone, please send them here.

DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
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2 comments:

Ken Riches said...

We do a lot of laughing, so I hope you can find someone to bring some humor into your life.

Rubye Jack said...

My mother's side of the family is always laughing. Where I live now is more serious but where I lived in California people laughed much more. Both were senior communities. Also people never get my jokes here which is rather dismaying. I think humor and laughter may have something to do with intelligence. Maybe?