Let laughter be free!

I just love this line by Dr. Sun Wolf: “Watching a child’s laughter teaches a candle’s flame how to dance.”

Recently, I had a conversation with a young woman at a Federal Way landmark who was going through a stressful time.

Saddled with the burden of caring for her sick mother, she was neck deep in the dumps. By the time we got through talking, both of us were howling with laughter.

Where did that haggard look that framed her face an hour earlier go? She was transformed. She thanked me for the laughter, and promised that she would strive to incorporate humor into her daily life.

Having been challenged with her “old-fashioned” name over the years, she has oftentimes contemplated a name change.

“As far back as I can remember,” she said, “old ladies would always ask me, ‘What’s your name you cute little thing?’ And when I told them my name, their response was, ‘Oh, my. That’s a beautiful name, and you want to know something? That was my grandmother’s name, but she died many years ago.’”

That line made her scream with horror, thinking that she, too, would soon go the way of her elderly namesakes. She recalled that story with such composure. There’s definitely a spot for her in standup comedy.

I confess that I had not laughed that hard since reading Frank McCourt’s “Angela’s Ashes” on a flight from New York to London 12 years ago.

My friend had forewarned me not to read that book in public, but I failed to take heed. I made a jackass of myself reading a section where McCourt recalled as a boy how he tried out his father’s dentures, and the top one got stuck inside his mouth.

He turned heads while riding on his father’s shoulders to the hospital to extricate the toothy gadget protruding from his small mouth. Nary a sympathy was offered as passersby rolled with laughter at the grinning lad.

Laughter, indeed, is the best medicine. A noted quotation does justice to the subject of chortling.

“A good, real, unrestrained, hearty laugh is a sort of glorified internal massage, performed rapidly and automatically. It manipulates and revitalizes corners and unexplored crannies of the system that are unresponsive to most other exercise methods.”

I love to be around people that laugh easily. If there’s one legacy I would carry forward, it’s the joy of laughter. I constantly share with my family how humor was a mainstay of my childhood.

Back then, both young and old jostled to tell their jokes du jour around the dinner table.