“No matter what your heartache may be, laughing helps you forget it for a few seconds.”
– American actor and comedian Red Skelton was born on this day in 1913 (died 1997)
I grew up watching Red Skelton on TV. He was one of my Dad’s favorites.
We don’t seem to have much to laugh about these days.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, if it wasn’t such as serious office the whole debacle of the Presidential campaign would be hysterical.
Instead we just have repeated moments of slamming or heads on our desks.
Nearly every morning we wake up and think surely today’s news can’t be any worse.
Nearly every morning we’re wrong.
Orlando, Dallas, Nice, Turkey…and those are just the larger ones.
It’s hard to find things to laugh about.
And yet, there’s healing in laughter.
Sometimes it’s nervous laughter.
Sometimes it’s laughter because the grief is just too hard to bear.
It’s like that scene in Steel Magnolias (oh, get over yourself even if it is a “chick flick”) when as they’re leaving the cemetery M’Lynn says she just wants to hit something.
Clairee says to her “Here, hit Ouiser.”
It was an absurd suggestion. It was also hysterical. And it broke the tension.
Ecclesiastes 3 says:
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens….a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance…
Sorry if the NIV translation messes with your Pete Seeger lyrics.
I’m not suggesting we don’t mourn, that we don’t grieve. We do. We must.
But, don’t forget that it’s okay to laugh.
The sorrow will still be there but there’s nothing wrong with the healing that comes from a few fits of laughter.
In fact there’s a whole lot right with it.
It’s okay, if it’s funny, go ahead and laugh.
It will do us all good.
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