Laughter, the Best Antidote for Getting Old

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A friend and fellow editor on ILLUMINATION, Liam Ireland, wrote an engaging article on getting old. You can read it here — and you should.

This prompted the internal wheels to begin turning — and when that happens, God knows what’s going to come out the other end.

YOUNG vs. OLD

When we’re young, we tend to Do a great deal more than we Think. It’s genetically coded into our bodies I’d suppose, to keep moving. Perhaps we’re recalling the need to stay several steps ahead of whoever was chasing us somewhere in our distant past.

But we do it from the moment we wake up in the morning to the moment we’re found leaning against a closet wall, fast asleep.

This is probably why most children are offended when made to sit still. It goes against Nature and their internal desire to keep looking and learning and figuring out how they can one day give the orders.

Thus, the older we get, and the more we’ve seen, experienced and stored away, the greater the need to reflect on what the best decisions should be. For as the years pass — those remaining before us begin to dwindle — while those piling up behind us, like ice floes behind a ship, provide us with an excuse to slow down.

We don’t want to, but we’ve already made our share of mistakes in our youth and perhaps vanity or just plain common sense, slows us down and prompts us to not be so seriously engaged in moving forward.

The young see the unknown before them as a vast landscape of indistinct images and possibilities that they can conquer and make their own.

The old, begin to see life repeating itself as situations return, lives intersect and then fade from view, as fewer and fewer people and places appear new and interesting.

THE FUTURE vs. THE PAST

The past at one point in our lives, was the future. It didn’t exist. Hadn’t been planned for or gifted to us by some stranger. And then we lived it and moved through it, creating friction and the controlled chaos we call life. Every day, more gets added to our past as our future becomes predictably shorter. It’s unfair and arbitrary but history tells us that this is generally how it’s going to end up.

So, the future, by default, becomes a more serious proposition. We look at it differently, like money spent, and begin to question our decisions to make sure we’re not wasting any of it.

As a result, we tend to not enjoy it as much as we once did, because we’re spending too much time analyzing it. Comparing one day to the next. Measuring usage and efficiencies and projecting out how the rest of our days might play out, unless productions quotas are increased and excess waste eliminated.

And inevitably we break it down into minutes and hours. Looking at our clocks and iPhone calendars with increased regularity, to ensure we’re spending equal amounts building moments as we do experiencing them.

And in the end, we feel a twinge of regret. Days comes to mind that were poorly used. Mismanaged.

Instead of feeling the seconds moves through us, and sucking every bit of joy from them, we dwell on the loss. What could have or should have been, gets added to a rather large pile of files to review — when we have a little more time.

In this manner, the past takes on a greater role in our lives. We look to it to find answers that hopefully prevent us from making the same mistakes. Not realizing that every minute or hour spent thus reviewing what was, prevents us from enjoying what is.

LAUGHTER

“I threw a boomerang a few years ago. I now live in constant fear.”

Jokes are one way to prompt laughter. Gets people to stop for a moment — and almost all of us will — and experience something that distracts.

“How do you drown a hipster? Throw him into the mainstream.” Ba dum, Tss!

Laughter is a way of rejecting something. We know it’s silly or impossible and yet, it makes us smile.

I never met anyone who didn’t like to laugh. Which tells me that everyone needs it. And when they are lost in it for a moment; when the body heaves and shakes a little and our minds let go of whatever was there moments before, we know we’re onto something.

Laughter makes life less serious. Not less real, just less imposing and frightening at times. It takes us out of ourselves and whatever we were chewing on and gives us a moment to look at something else. Something very significant. That maybe, whatever it was that held our attention, perhaps wasn’t as important as we thought.

Through a show of hands — how many of us — when released from a “fit of laughter” felt a whole lot better than we did before?

FINAL THOUGHTS

Walking into a court room, or bedroom or board room and starting a two-minute stand-up routine may not always be appropriate. Making jokes isn’t the point and isn’t the only way to achieve laughter. Sometimes being real and honest and open and looking at the lighter side of life does the trick.

There’s another thing I have learned over time. Laughter is never wasted.

It’s better to spend one minute laughing than worrying over something that can’t be changed.

Joe Luca is writer and editor for ILLUMINATION and a published author and writer of children’s stories, short fiction, non-fiction articles, screenplays and poetry. Publications include Child’s Life, Children’s Playmate and others. There are some other articles below — have a read. And thank you for stopping by.

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