Previous Challenge Entry
Topic: Laughter (10/18/04)
TITLE: She Thought What...?! By Glenda Lagerstedt 10/25/04 |
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No. This is not an emergency waiting room during a flu outbreak. It is a gathering of old friends, and these symptoms are not caused by illness; they are caused by free uninhibited bursts of hilarity. Memory lane is parading its funniest moments.
“Do you remember the time we were taking Communion at church and Cheryl’s garter let go on one of her nylons (pre-pantyhose era) and the top draped lower and lower? By the time we returned to our seats, she had one long stocking trailing over her shoe, full length on the floor behind her…..”
“One day my mom and I were driving along and we were talking about the way children turned out after they were grown. Just as serious as could be, Mom said, ‘Well, we do the best we can. We love and neuter our children….’ Polite society and common courtesy dictate that the error be ignored and the laughter stifled. But I lost the struggle with courtesy and pulled the car to the side of the road, laughing too hard to drive further. ‘Mom, I think you meant ‘nurture’ our children.’ I wonder… hahahaha….what people passing by thought of two women dissolving…haha… in the front seat of that out of state car?”
“My friend Kathy one time made some peanut brittle…haha…to serve to a group of us at her house….and after awhile she realized that she was the only one talking…everyone’s mouth was glued shut by the peanut brittle…haha…”
“I remember the time Lynn…haha… got to a conference late. Not wanting to draw attention to herself, she found a seat… at the back and set her bags down… only to have her deodorant can drop to the floor in the quiet auditorium and roll…hahaha… on down the aisle steps…clink, roll, clink, roll, clink….”
“My friend Gloria used to go with her parents to visit her grandparents in another town. Sometimes they went by the main road but at other times they took the back road over the mountain. So Gloria thought…..that she had two sets of grandparents… that looked exactly alike…haha… and lived in the same kind of house.” Hahahahah!
And the stories go on, each memory bringing up another. Soon no one can say a coherent word. Someone is trying to share a story but the responding laughter has nothing to do with the story because no one knows what it is. We are now laughing simply because the would-be storyteller is laughing too hard to get a word out.
In my pondering moments I sometimes think about how glad I am that God left ‘sense of humor’ on the list of blessings that would remain in our world after the Fall of creation. He proclaims in the Word that ‘A merry heart does good like a medicine.’ Scientists confirm that this is true. Laughter is indeed good for us; ‘internal jogging’ they sometimes call it.
May there always be laughter…and may there always be loved ones to share it with.