A healthy dose of medicine for the soul
A large segment of the human population takes things too seriously for their own good. The strange anomaly is that most people laugh at the wrong things and don’t laugh at the right things. This gross incongruity has deprived people of a healthy attitude towards life in general.
Those who take life too seriously are in danger of missing out on the great joys of living in a crazy world like ours. I’m not sure about the scientific research, but my guess is that for every sad moment it takes a hundred laughs to balance the books. Some people are ninety-nine laughs short of a moment of true sanity.
I like the old English proverb that goes: “Laugh and all the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone.”
From my perspective, if you can’t laugh with someone, you can’t cry with him or her and have that mean anything.
According to some medical advice, it takes more facial muscles and energy to frown than to smile. Of course the only exercise some people have is scowling and who am I to take that away from them.
I am determined, come what may, to exercise my right to smile, laugh and enjoy the world around me. I must confess that I have this attitude quite honestly.
My paternal grandfather was a Past Master in the field of practical jokes. No amount of time was too much to spend preparing for one of his famous practical jokes. His favorite holiday was April 1st and he started preparing for this holiday right after Christmas.
The fact that his practical jokes sometimes got him into trouble didn’t seem to affect him at all.
Once, while he was in the hospital for an extended period, someone smuggled him a snuff tin. For some reason she liked to chew snuff. It is the most disgusting habit I know of on earth.
As soon as he received his contraband goods, he began to chew them. If you know anything about chewing snuff, you know that it is accompanied by a lot of spitting. As usual, his timing was impeccable. Just as the head nurse passed her door and looked in, she leaned over and spat into the trash can she kept beside her bed. The nurse, not knowing about the snuff, thought she was spitting up blood and immediately went into emergency mode. My grandfather was immediately taken to the operating room and the surgeon and medical team were assembled.
My grandfather was very sick at the time. Some did not think that he would leave the hospital.
As soon as they located him in the operating room, he took out his snuff can from under the sheet and smiled at them. The only person in the room who thought this was funny in any way was my grandfather. The doctors were so angry with him that they refused to see him for three days and confiscated his snuffbox to chew.
My aunt and uncle lived right next to my grandfather. My aunt was super clean when it came to her house. Dirt in any form was not welcome under her roof. She had a broom that she was always within her reach because she never knew when a piece of trash would try to invade her home.
That year my grandfather found something new. I’m not sure where he found it, but he probably spent a lot of time looking for something like this. It was a rubber facsimile of a very nasty looking vomit. To him it was a possession.
Most of his practical jokes were executed on April 1. Whenever we saw Grandpa coming on that particular day, we would usually run and hide.
He went to visit my aunt and was sitting on the sofa in the living room. They chatted for a while and then my grandfather started coughing a little. He told my aunt, “I haven’t been feeling well lately. I really don’t know what it is.” Then he began to cough a little more seriously, to which my aunt got up and she went to the kitchen to get him a glass of water, thinking that this could help him.
When he returned, he was shocked to see a very horrible sight on his new coffee table. My grandfather was bent over the coffee table coughing and coughing like he was about to die. On the coffee table was a very disgusting looking piece of vomit.
My aunt became hysterical. She turned around and at one point she grabbed the broom from her and headed towards my grandfather. My grandfather was laughing, but not for long.
He suddenly realized that the waved broom in my aunt’s hand was directed at him. She chased him out of the house, up the driveway, and for at least three blocks yelling obscenities at him that I dare not repeat in public society.
Laughter is the fresh air of the soul. Even the Bible thinks so.
“A cheerful heart makes the face happy, but the spirit is broken by sadness of the heart” (Proverbs 15:13). And, my favorite, “A cheerful heart does good as medicine; But a broken spirit dries up the bones” (Proverbs 17:22).
I recommend a healthy dose of medicine for your soul.