Journal of Sacred Work

I would not want to belong to a club that would have someone like me as a member.  – Groucho Marx (left, with sidekick George Fenneman)

    Woody Allen liked Groucho’s line so much that he used it as the opening to his classic film, Annie Hall. Jokes are one of our pathways to laughter. And laughter, according to all the experts, is great medicine. Norman Cousins was one of many to prove this when he literally laughed his way out of a terminal illness in the 1980s. He wrote a marvelous book about it, called Anatomy of an Illness, in which he chronicles how he watched funny movies every day and had people tell him jokes. In a matter of months, his incurable illness had left his body.
   Laughter eases the pressures of our lives. In the midst of laughter, the world is bright and our worries, at least for a moment, retreat… 

   We honor the great comedians of history. They are, unerringly, great
story tellers. And we revere them. Shakespeare’s comedies entertain us
to this day. Mark Twain is one of the most appreciated people in
American history. His ability to bring us joy through his story telling was so remarkable that he is considered a genius.

  It’s not always funny to analyze what makes us laugh because analysis is, by nature, rarely a funny process. It is head, not feeling. In the end, the process that makes us laugh is mysterious. We know the results of laughter, but it’s difficult to explain why it happens.
   For example, I have heard three people tell the same joke too different audiences. One of them makes everyone laugh. With the other two, the audience was left saying things like, "Well, I guess you had to be there." With the successful joke teller, it was all in the delivery.
   Can timing be taught? Perhaps. But those with timing seem to know its power instinctively. And instinct, by nature, cannot be taught.  It may, however, be developed and enhanced with practice. 
   Life without laughter is not worth living, is it? Above is a photo of my grandson, an expert at laughter, in an image taken a year ago when he was two. He laughs at things we cannot see. And that is the heart of why analyzing laughter can seem so ridiculous. We laugh because it’s part of living. Who cares about analysis?
   Look once more at the picture of my grandson and you will see how close laughter is to tears. A slight change in the compression of the eyes and we suddenly would see sadness. 
   Laugher and tears. My dad was a great example of someone who could laugh so hard he would cry. And I saw, in him, the depths of his ability to feel as he laughed at jokes and cried at the mention of his late mother.
   Every great caregiver knows how to laugh. In the Gospel of Judas, recently brought to public attention by National Geographic, there appears a great revelation with the line, "And Jesus laughed."
   The New Testament doesn’t report much laughter from Jesus. But this new Gospel makes Jesus, in his human self, like the rest of us. He laughs!
   Yes. Jesus laughed. As do we. For without the laughter, brought to us, in part, by the process we call joking, life has no quality. Love calls us to laugh. And I hope for you much laughter in this day.