"Laughter, The Medicine That Works

“Laughter, The Medicine That Works”

January 18, 2011

“I was irrevocably betrothed to laughter, the sound of which

always seemed to me the most exciting civilized music in the world.”

                                                                                                        Peter Ustinov (1921-2004)

Apart from the sensuality of cruising Cappuccino at day’s start or flying down Born Free at day’s end, or the adrenalin rush one gets from attacking a groomed Blue Ox in between, what I always remember best of my too-few days in Vail is the laughing – on the slopes, at lunch and at dinner. Laughter serves as a release, after an exciting, nerve-tingling run down Riva Ridge; it allows us to become easily reacquainted after months of absence.

Who can read the lines from P.G. Wodehouse without at least cracking a smile? “I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from gruntled.” Or, “She looked as if she had been poured into her clothes and forgotten to say ‘when’”. I am a member of a small group in New York, all aficionados of Wodehouse, called the Drones. We meet irregularly for dinner. In our youth we would toss rolls around the table – beaning the bald guy across and two seats down the table with a crusted roll – when he looked away – was a measure of sophistication, which caused raucous laughter from the rest. Our hands and arms have become stilled (with age?); nevertheless, our almost constant laughter still causes more sober diners to regard our childish antics with dismay.

An old Yiddish proverb says, “What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.” But laughter may also have medicinal benefits. Medical experts claim it reduces muscle tension and distracts attention from pain – both emotional and physical. But not only does laughter act as a distraction, it actually stimulates the release of endorphins, the bodies natural pain killers. Doctors suggest the act of laughing is known to lower blood pressure, reduce stress hormones and increase muscle flexion.

For most of my forty-four years on Wall Street, trading desks were the creative hot spots for jokes, especially those dealing with tragic events. The jokes were never meant to be demeaning or disrespectful; they were simply an expression of relief during tense moments. Traders thrive on intensity. A poorly executed trade can mean the difference between a profit, or a loss involving hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. Stress is often followed by laughter.

“Humor is one of the most serious tools we have for dealing with impossible situations;” so once wrote Erica Jong. In 1976, Norman Cousins published the first chapter of his book, Anatomy of an Illness, in the New England Journal of Medicine. He had been diagnosed a dozen years earlier with ankylosing spondylitis, an acute inflammation of the spine, and had been given only a few months to live. He left the hospital, checked into a hotel, took mega doses of vitamin C and turned the TV to whatever humorous programs he could find. He discovered that 10 minutes of boisterous laughter resulted in at least two hours of uninterrupted, pain-free sleep. He continued the routine until he recovered.

We live during a serious time. Radical Islamic terrorists attacked our country ten years ago. We are finally exiting the most severe economic collapse in eighty years. A gun-toting maniac just killed six people in Tucson and wounded a U.S. Representative. Every day in America, about eighty people are shot dead – about 29,000 every year. Does laughter seem too cavalier for dealing with today’s problems? Do expressions of humor just seem callous and unfeeling? Violent Islamic protests broke out after the Danish newspaper, “Jyllands-Posten,” published a dozen editorial cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet, Mohammad. The Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, called the subsequent response (in which 100 people were killed) as Denmark’s worst international crisis since World War II.

Yet, the ability to laugh at one’s self is critical in all situations. The Revolutionary War period in America was a trying time and we don’t often think of the Founding Fathers laughing their way through Philadelphia in 1776. The Founders had put both their fortunes and their lives on the line when they broke with the Crown. However, they were not without a sense of humor. Benjamin Franklin once suggested sending rattlesnakes to England in response to them sending convicted criminals to America. George Washington, who is generally portrayed as a stern icon, in 1755 wrote his brother John (in words that anticipated by 150 years similar remarks from one of the Nation’s greatest humorists, Mark Twain.) “As I have heard since my arrival at this place a circumstantial account of my death and dying speech, I take this opportunity of…contradicting the first, and assuring you I have yet to compose the latter.”

In our country, it has generally been those Presidents with a good sense of humor – Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan – with whom must of us feel the greatest identification. While those like Nixon and Carter, though perhaps possessing humor, never used it to their advantage and thus suffered. It is a lesson President’s should learn.

Laughter is spontaneous. Shortly after I met my wife, she and I, along with her roommate, Posy and boyfriend Ed, were having drinks at the Eliot Lounge on the corner of Massachusetts and Commonwealth Avenues in Boston. Something, which I can no longer recall, caused Caroline to break out in paroxysms of laughter. Her joyful and contagious laugh was echoed by another young woman, who remained hidden from us in that darkened room. When one paused for breath, the other leapt into the breach. The effect was not unlike the mournful tone of taps, the music of which reverberates off distant hills from a second, unseen bugler.

Laughter is not learned; it is instinctive. “Infants will laugh almost from birth,” says well known psychologist, Steve Wilson, who refers to himself as a “joyologist.” Jokes may help, but are not critical to laughter. Mr. Wilson points out that pre-schoolers laugh on average 400 times a day, while adults laugh less than 15 times. I have long felt that children are there to teach us; in this regard they can. Humor is equalizing; it admonishes the pretentious and lifts the depressed. “Laugh and the whole world laughs with you; weep and you weep alone!” is an old but true adage.