Getting Serious About Being Funny

Deep in my heart, I have always known what Reader’s Digest has been proclaiming for years, that “laughter is the best medicine.” I’ve found validation in this belief in a book by Linda Richman (I’d Rather Laugh) and the works of Norman Cousins. I have often said that without laughter, I would have stuck my head in the oven a long time ago — and since I have an electric stove, all I would have gotten was a bad sunburn anyway.

This week, as I sit home, going out of my mind with the most godawful spreading skin rash coupled with a letter from my x-ray group that my mammogram is abnormal and I need more tests, I must say that I was hard pressed to find something to laugh about. Like most of us, I am also still stunned by what has happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I’ve pulled out the column I wrote after 9-11 to remind myself (see below) that we will laugh again.

As if in answer to my silent question, I stumbled upon an organization that knows exactly how serious this business of humor can be. The Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor is headquarter almost in my backyard, in Princeton, New Jersey. Members include such well respected professionals as Dr. Patch Adams and someone whose presentation I have never forgotten, New Jersey’s Rosemarie Poverman. It didn’t take any thought on my part to sign up and join. I may not be a doctor or a therapist, but, I sure am a humorist and I look forward to doing whatever I can do to spread the work about the important, serious work of being funny. For more information on this group, go to their web page at www.aath.org.

And if you decide that this is an organization you want to join or support, let them know you heard it from me.

Below I’m reprinting my column written after 9-11, not only in observance of the 4th anniversary this week, but also to remind us, in this recent time of trouble, we will laugh again.

We Will Laugh Again

As I write this, October 2001 is spreading the golden crown of fall across most of America. A sense of change is in the air, as nature prepares herself for the long restful sleep of winter. And, deep within us, there is change too- not a seasonal change brought about by nature, but a violent upheaval that reverberates to the innermost depths of the soul. Our hearts have been slashed open by an insidious foe hiding behind a cowardly mask of self-serving ideology. Our pain is so great, we know we have been changed forever, and in our grief, in our mourning, in our righteous anger comes the feeling that will never smile again. Indeed those of us who have survived these horrific events, those of us who can hold our loved ones to our breasts are burdened by an overwhelming sense of guilt and a helplessness that is almost paralyzing.

But we have been asked to get back to business. We have been asked to prove that our way of life here in America is not something that cannot be snuffed out by those who place no value on life, have no sense of honor and seek only to destroy all who cannot feed into their megalomania. Indeed, they are depending on the very things that make us American - our compassion, our openness, our hands that we extend in friendship to those who love and hate us - to let them get to us, hurt us, kill us. But those hands have now closed into fists of anger and frustration, those hands have grasped the tools of rescue and rebuilding, those hands have raised the flag of freedom and justice, and those hands are reaching across the globe, to find the cowards where they hide, to drag them out into the light of day, where no evil thing can live.
And slowly, yes, slowly, our tears will dry. Our faces will wear the grim visages of determination; our eyes will focus on the task ahead. As one, we will rise like the Phoenix from the ashes, stronger and fiercer. And when the dust, dirt, debris and blood of the battle clears- we will stand, united and free still.

And yes, as time goes by, we will smile again, we will laugh again. The United States, the nation blessed and charged with standing as the shining example for all, will go on. But we shall never forget.