LAUGING OUR WAY TO HEALTH.
        
              Laughing is universal and most of us don't need lessons in
        how to do it.  Babies gurgle with it by the age of four months of
        age and sometimes earlier.  We don't need extensive government
        research to tell us that laughter reduces tension, clears the
        mind, and lifts the spirits.
              Years ago, Norman Cousins, New York Magazine editor and
        noted author, was suffering from a terminal illness.  He went
        into semi-retirement and used laughter to heal himself.  Day
        after day, all he did was watch funny television programs and
        movies.  He read joke books, and did nothing which caused him to
        be serious.  At the end of his self-prescribed treatment, his
        illness disappeared.  He returned to work completely healed. 
        Cousins claimed it was laughter which caused him to overcome his
        illness.
              Laughter increases heart rates and hormone production.  It
        improves muscle tone and circulation.  It takes more than fifty
        muscles to frown, but only three to smile.  Henry Miller, a
        favorite author of mine, said, "Smile, and you're immediately
        happy."  
              Indeed, laughter is kind of a work out though it's not
        exactly a major calorie burner.  You can laugh yourself silly,
        but not thin.  Yet it does help move nutrients and oxygen along
        the body's tissues.  Perhaps this is one reason a fit of mirth
        makes people feel better.  But don't throw away your running
        shoes, since aerobic guffawing is hard to do.
              As Cousins did, you can add laughter to your life by seeing
        a funny movie, watching a rerun of "Laugh-In", reviving some
        silly family stories, reading comic books, telling jokes.  Just
        be sure not to tell the kinds of jokes that may cause someone
        else pain.  
              What keeps us from laughing?  Sometimes it is the day to day
        struggles to meet survival and safety needs.  But when is enough
        enough?  We become obsessed with amassing more and more material
        wealth, often at the expense of our emotional well being.  How
        many families do you know today where there is only one
        "breadwinner?"  
              In the 1930's, many people, reduced to living hand to mouth,
        demanded, MORE!  We experienced in the next 30 years a standard
        of living which will probably never be duplicated.  Yet, it was
        achieved with some serious costs.  One of these was the loss of a
        national sense of humor.  
              What people lament about today as compared to the 1950's is
        that that time was less serious.  The war was over, homes were
        being built, children were being raised, and Ozzie and Harriet,
        Lucy and Desi, the Honeymooners, and other less serious family
        sitcoms graced our newly developed television networks.  
              Today, our sitcoms are socially relevant.  Humor is couched
        in the context of what is acceptable and pertinent.  Sometimes we
        laugh, but only as a conditioned response to the laugh prompters. 
        There is a lack of genuine guffaw in the experience.  What is
        missing is an intangible sense of relaxation.  If I wanted to
        think about issues, I would read the editorial pages of The New
        York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
              An example that comes to mind is the Seinfeld Show.  I can
        only describe it as a schizophrenic experience.  All the
        characters seem to be at the effect of life and not at its cause. 
        Only at the beginning and the end, when Jerry does his monologue,
        is there any semblance of order.  Perhaps that is the show's
        design, but to me it is unnerving.  I am glad when he is on stage
        because the pace of life in his apartment is beyond my patience.
              Even in some of the oriental cultures like Japan and the
        other Eastern Shelf nations, the pace of life is becoming more
        hectic.  With industrialization comes a seriousness which
        detracts from a person's ability to enjoy life in its simplest
        forms.
              Perhaps that is why Tai Chi Ch'uan is so attractive to many
        people.  In meditation and graceful exercise, the body is slowed
        down and the spirit is enriched.  It is just another way to reach
        a state of being which heals the body and soul without externally
        administered medications.
              In Healing and the Mind, Bill Moyers explored many
        interesting methods to heal the body via the mind.  After
        watching the five hour series, I was amazed at how much there is
        to be explored in regard to the "healing art."  In almost all the
        segments he described, there was a need for people to be with
        people.  Each person contributes to the health and well being of
        others.  There is no individual who can live without meaningful
        interpersonal relationships.
              Enter laughter into the wellness equation and perhaps
        someday, in the not-to-distant future, we will laugh ourselves
        into good health.       In this way, laughter itself, a rather cheap
        and universally available commodity, can be used to heal the body
        and the soul.  Is there anybody among us that avoids being around
        someone who truly makes us laugh from the bottom of our feet to
        the tips of the hair on our head?  
              There is an old adage which states, "those who laugh last,
        laugh best."  Perhaps it should be reworded to say, "those who
        laugh...last."
              Have a happy, healthy, humorous, New Year!