HUMOR

Most people think of jokes or someone being funny when they hear the word humor. Seriously, it has an astoundingly powerful meaning that you may need to check out yourself to believe. It is more closely associated with moisture, and the liquids required of life. The #1 meaning of humor in the unabridged dictionary is "any fluid or juice of an animal or plant considered responsible for one's health and disposition". If you're like me, you're thinking that's not funny, just weird. Meaning #2 is "a person's disposition or temperament - mood or state of mind. Meaning #3 is a whim or fancy. You have to get to meaning #4 before it even sound familiar "the quality that makes something seem funny or amusing". When I laugh hard my eyes tear up and become moist, but other than that I didn't get the connection at all to the critical importance of humor. Laughter may be contagious but some people laugh more than others. Is laughter even a good thing?

The truth is that laughter reduces stress and perks up the immune system. Clifford Kuhn, professor of psychiatry at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, said "drug companies would be knocking themselves out to get the patent, if medicine could harness the proven health benefits of laughter". In his book, The Fun Factor, he states that laughter reduces the level of stress hormones, relaxes muscles, clears the respitory tract, increases circulation and reduces pain. Lee Beck, while an associate professor of Pathology at Loma Linda University said "laughter soothes and stimulates with endorphins allowing us to feel like we do after an aerobic workout". Psychiatrist William Fry of Stanford University says "laughter is a total body exercise that requires repetition. All mental stimulation expands brain function which is a good reason to laugh a lot". Milton Berle called laughter an instant vacation.

For most of us a sense of humor is defined as the ability to perceive and appreciate or express what is funny, amusing or ludicrous. In Ecclesiastes 3:4 the Bible says there is "a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance". Well executed humor has the power to deliver a message in an entertaining and therefore memorable way. Peggy Noonan, a noted speech writer for President Reagan, says "humor is gracious and shows respect". Perhaps the best way to describe humor is to review what it is NOT. It is not joke telling. It does not embarrass, insult, offend, or demean. It is not slapstick silliness, although there is a place for that skill. Comments that are sexist, racist, or otherwise dismissive of a group of people, just like crude language, is not funny. When people think of Mark Twain as a humorist it is because of his stories. The more tangled they were the more entertained we were.

Humor is the attitude we have about what happens to us. If your family has not drummed the humor gene out of you, your life experiences can be described in a way that will make folks laugh. As you learn to paint rich word pictures of your life events the comical view you have will cause your own life sustaining laughter. Author Norman Cousins reported in his book, Anatomy of an Illness, that 10 minutes of laughing at himself resulted in the release of enough natural opiates to be pain free for 2 hours. Keeping company with positive, optimistic people helps raise our moods. Emotions are an "open" system that allows us to pick up the moods of others. Rudyard Kipling said "words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind". Creating a "light mood" around you at work, at home, at church, or with others as you meet them, will encourage spontaneity and mirth-making. Humor is that fluid in the brain responsible for my disposition, and I have the responsibility of administering it.

Picture me as a young first-time father proud that I could be helpful in the care of our new son when my wife asked me to change his diaper. I knew from previous observations that the chill of being diaper less could cause a steady stream of yellowish liquid shoot straight up in the air to an amazing height. I cautiously ripped the sticky tape holding the sides of the diaper together and cleverly held it above his appendage like a hovering UFO. With my other hand I deftly grabbed a wet wipe and began to cleanse the buttocks area when an unexpected eruption occurred. A gray-green substance began oozing onto my confidently placed wet wipe. It continued and continued and soon my large outstretched hand was full so I spun the hovering diaper around to assist the out manned wet wipe. Now both hands are placed to receive what I later found out was a meconium release seemingly as large as my son. I instinctively yelled for help, but when my loving wife and my sister saw my predicament they both fell down laughing and were of no help at all. I prayed for a third hand but God was apparently laughing as well and didn't send one. By this time the ooze has left the wipe and diaper and was headed up my arm while I was stuck awaiting the soon to arrive urine stream aimed at my self-confidence as a father. I suppose that is humor, especially if you laughed.