As we made our way to Jordan’s basinet, Connie saw another
baby under an ultraviolet light for control of jaundice.
She grabbed my arm and whispered, “What’s that blue light?”
Without thinking, I just blurted out the first thing that
came to mind.
“Sweetheart, that baby’s on sale for the next ten minutes.”
Stupid? Absolutely.
Insensitive? I don’t think so (It was heard only by the two of
us).
Effective? You bet. It wasn’t very funny, but when Connie
jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow and whispered, “Cut that
out,” I knew that the tension had been broken and we were going
to get through that experience a little more easily.
That, my friends, is the human humor nature in action;
usually not very funny, but marvelously effective in getting us
through tough challenges. And it has been serving our species in
that regard since the beginning of our history. There is nothing new
about the notion that humor is our best resource. It goes back at
least as far as the Bible. In the Book of Proverbs we read, “A happy
heart is good medicine; a cheerful m ind works healing.” That’s pretty
unambiguous.
Sometimes it appears that we have just recently discovered
humor’s power, because it has only been over the last 25 years that
science has taken the matter under serious consideration. Indeed,
we’ve seen an explosion of scientific research into humor over the
last quarter century, which has established beyond doubt that it
reduces stress, boosts immunity, relieves pain, decreases anxiety,
stabilizes mood, rests the brain, enhances communication, inspires
creativity, maintains hope and bolsters m orale.
Who would not want those benefits in their life? How could
they not lead to greater success on many levels? Yet, we seem to have
fallen into a pattern of underutilization of our humor nature, a
deprivation syndrome characterized by taking ourselves too seriously.
I call this condition term inal seriousness.
Terminal seriousness will take us down if we do not
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