Humor Me

Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.”
William James


My older brother, who created all of the original artwork on this blog, thought it would be humorous to Photoshop a picture of what I might look like should I lose my hair during chemotherapy. He started with a picture of me, circa 1966. I wish I still had that impish look to go with my beard! I laughed hysterically at the picture and my wife loved it so much she put it up as our screensaver.

While he could have expressed his concern for what I'm going through any number of ways, my brother knew intuitively what I needed at the time. I can picture him working on the photo, smiling and probably laughing to himself as he put on the final touches. I feel fortunate that he would use his God-given talents to try and bring comfort to me during these trying times. I hope he knows that paybacks are a bitch and that I have an album of old family photographs just waiting next to my scanner.

We are told that keeping a sense of humor is critical to making it through difficult times, yet it's often one of the first casualties. All too often sarcasm and gallows humor take the place of true laughter as life literally begins to feel heavier. Surrendering to seriousness and cynicism, we rob ourselves of a natural healing method of which the worst side effect is that our sides ache, or if it was really funny, we pee our pants.

Scientific literature is filled with studies about the positive benefits of having a good laugh. Just a few of these include:

Enhanced respiration
Increased number of immune cells and an increase in immune-cell proliferation
Decrease in cortisol
Increase in endorphins
Increase in salivary immunoglobulin type A concentrations
Lower blood pressure
Fewer repeat heart attack

It seems that nature gave us a funny bone so that we might assist in healing ourselves.

In the mindfulness world there are even laughing meditations, "laugh clubs" and laughing yoga to help rev up what we could consider our seventh sense. Humor heals because in order to find something funny we have to be able to shift our mindset from something we are worrying about in the future or past to the here and now. It doesn't work to say, "Yeah, that will probably be funny to me in about a week, ha, ha." It is the spontaneous dropping of the ego's defenses that opens the door to the healing effects of humor. It feels good to laugh because the soul is nourished when it basks in the moment of what is.

My first day of radiation treatment I was handed a card that had my picture on it and a list of the number of treatments that I was scheduled to undergo. After the treatment the tech initialed a square on the card. I took a stab at lightening the moment by asking, "Do I get a free sandwich when I fill this up?" Not a bad one, I thought, considering the circumstances. The tech, not missing a beat, responded, "No, but you do get a toaster." I knew I was in good hands.