laughter.............................

 "Laughter," he says, "and a lot of it, is the right response to the things which drive us to tears."

-William B. Irvine, channeling Cato in A Guide to the Good Life

On laughter.....................

      Consider one of those features of people that set them apart from other species: laughter.  No other animal laughs.  What we call the laughter of the hyena is a species sound that happens to resemble human laughter.  To be real laughter it would have to be an expression of amusement—laughter at something, founded in a complex pattern of thought.  True, there is also "laughter at what ceases to amuse," as Eliot puts it.  But we understand this "hollow" laughter as a deviation from the central case, which is the case of amusement.  But what is amusement?  No philosopher, it seems to me, has ever quite put a finger on it.  Hobbes's description of laughter as "sudden glory" has a certain magical quality; but "glory" suggests that all laughter is a form of triumph, which is surely far from the truth.  Schopenhauer, Berson, and Freud have attempted to identify the particular thought that lies at the heart of laughter: none, I think, with more than partial success. Helmuth Plessner has seen laughing and crying as keys to the human condition, features that typify our distinctiveness.  But his phenomenological language is opaque and leads to no clear analysis of either laughter or tears,

     One contention, however, might reasonably be advanced, which is that laughter expresses an ability to accept our all-too-human inadequacies: by laughing we may attract the community of sentiment that inoculates us against despair. . . . From that suggestion, however, another follows.  Only a being who makes judgments can laugh.  Typically we laugh at things that fall short or at witticisms that place our actions side by side with the aspirations that they ridicule.

-Roger Scruton, On Human Nature

Twists..................

  However, I only have one goal for the coming new year. Staying alive, and smiling no matter what. The toughest time to find joy is when fate isn't kind. So, call me anything but serious. If you aren't laughing at the twists fate brings us, you aren't living.

-Rick Georges

And there is a lot to be amused about...........

      If we are insecure, we make fun of others.  If we're comfortable being wrong, we're not afraid to poke fun at ourselves.  Laughing at ourselves reminds us that although we might take our decisions seriously, we don't take ourselves seriously.  Research suggests that the more frequently we make fun of ourselves, the happier we tend to be.  Instead of beating ourselves up about our mistakes, we can turn some of our past misconceptions into sources of present amusement.

-Adam Grant, Think Again

Made me laugh..............................

 

           much more fun here

Corrective...........................

“Laughter is the corrective force which prevents us from becoming cranks.” 


-Henri Bergson

Public Service Announcement.......................

Sometimes all you can do is grin and laugh....

"The gargoyle is this little man grinning and laughing at the absurd behaviour of men on earth"

-as cut and pasted from this Cultural Offering post

Can I get an Amen.......................?

 "freedom and democracy depend on our disinhibition; we need to be able to laugh at authority." 

-Ann Althouse, from here

Fifty years ago.....................................

On the TV....................................Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In

Well, ok...............................

He either makes me laugh.....................

..........................or, he makes me think.   Makes him read-worthy.

Laughter...............................

Humor is important to the maturation process, whereby we learn how not to take ourselves so seriously and to laugh at ourselves, thus decreasing narcissistic defensiveness.  To be prone to "hurt feelings" is egocentric and a form of social paranoia.  When we admit our downside and learn to laugh at it, we are not longer vulnerable to slights and insults.

-David R. Hawkins

Belief...................................

“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.” 

-Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts On Common Things

A serious first-world problem.......

“When humor goes, there goes civilization.” 

-attributed to Erma Bombeck

The secret to living well................

Strong is the desire to believe...................

cartoon via

Why don't you do some of that funny stuff....

Scott commenced with this classic Carson clip.  Best I can do is to send you here.  As they say, laughter is good for the soul.

Secrets..........................

"One secret of life is that the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day.  Another is that laughter is carbonated holiness."

-Anne Lamott,  Plan B:  Further Thoughts on Faith

There comes a time................................

“There comes a time in your life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh. Forget the bad and focus on the good. Love the people who treat you right, pray for the ones who do not. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is a part of life, getting back up is living.” 


-José N. Harris

thanks Nicholas