Laughter: The Best Medicine

Life is hard. Not that it is rotten and miserable, but it is hard, and sometimes, it is harder than others. How do you tell how hard life is? For me, I can tell how hard things are by how long it takes to be able to laugh at them. For example, the time I got hit by a truck while riding my bike home. Kind of rotten, but really, it makes a fantastic story, and I was laughing about it a couple of hours later. Having my appendix rupture during my first semester of college? Surprisingly comical. (No, really: a jeep with no shocks, the potato-dog-fish, being totally out of it and trying to make sense, an entire day of tests to figure out what was the problem, and the determining factor was hitting the bottom of my feet. It is hilarious).

Some things are so hard that we never laugh about them. But you know you are going to be okay if you can still laugh and smile during them. Not that you have to do that constantly, but if you can still find things to laugh at, then you haven't hit rock bottom. Rock bottom is a place I hope none of you ever go. It is not a pretty place. It's hard, and rocky. So, yeah.

Right now, I don't feel much like laughing most of the time. But, I have been listening to back episodes of Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!, partly to keep me from focusing too much on how stressed I am, partly because it doesn't involve a lot of brain power, which means I can listen while I work on stuff, and a lot because it makes me laugh. It really does. And, I like to hear myself laugh, because it tells me I still feel things, and I can still laugh, and I'm going to be okay. So, yeah. Laughter, it really is good medicine.