12-9-01, Sunday Journal, 507 words
LAUGHING BALANCES THE BODY
By Dalton Roberts
IPS Features
From my journal notes of 1988
We have the notion that it's our sense of humor that makes us laugh. But nobody
ever says, when they see a baby laughing, "Doesn't that baby have a good
sense of humor."
It's not his sense of humor that makes him laugh. He needs no reason to laugh.
Laughter bubbles up from the inside and it keeps bubbling until we start
squelching it. We start thinking it is silly to laugh or that we have to have
something funny to laugh at.
Infants learn to laugh first and then develop a sense of humor. In a study, Dr.
Annette Goodheart found that four year olds laugh 500 times a day while adults
laugh only 15 times a day.
She also says that laughter counters the specific chemicals produced by fear. It
is a perfect cure for fear.
Laughter produces endorphins which reduce pain and causes our adrenal glands to
manufacture cortisol – a natural anti-inflammatory. Charlie Chaplin believed
the formula for laughter was to take pain and play with it.
I bought a picture of Jesus laughing from the Fellowship of Merry Christians. It
is my favorite painting of Him. And we know that most of the Buddhas are
laughers. Zen Buddhists believe if you laugh ten minutes upon waking, it's the
equivalent of 6 hours of meditation.
So roll over in the morning and laugh. Start your day off right.
PERFECT MISERY
From my 1991 journal notes
As long as you are seeking perfection, you will live in misery. Perfect misery.
It's the only perfection you will find.
This guy made it to 30 without marrying. He told people he was "looking for
the perfect woman." He made it to 40. Still, no perfect woman.
"Finally," he told a close friend, "I found the perfect woman in
Cairo, Illinois." His friend was elated. "You married her, of
course?" his friend asked.
He answered, "No. She was looking for the perfect man."
Once when I found myself looking with aversion on a severely disfigured
handicapped person, the thought came to me, "This person looks no worse
than Lamar, the dearest friend you ever had. And you thought he was
perfect."
I remembered my little buddy, Lamar, who never weighed over 70 pounds, was
hump-backed from a childhood bout with polio, and walked with a severe limp on
legs no bigger than my wrist.
The thought that came to me that day was so right. To me, Lamar was one of the
most perfect persons I had ever known. It remained that way until he died at 33.
It remains that way today.
So where do we look for perfection? Nowhere. It's the wrong focus. Look for
something beautiful in ever disfigurement, something true in every liar,
something promising in every failure. Just look at what is and accept it as it
is. Your acceptance is the only chance it has to get any better.
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