At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities. — Jean Houston
Mirth is God’s medicine. Everybody ought to bathe in it. — Henry Ward Beecher
A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book. — Irish proverb
PENANG, Malaysia — To those overly serious critics who emailed me at Twitter and Facebook complaining that President-elect Noynoy C. Aquino was supposedly acting “unpresidential” by letting his hair down and singing with some TV performers at his recent inaugural bash: relax. Allow the guy to enjoy himself and make us laugh.
This writer strongly believes in this psycho-political analysis: that one of the biggest pitfalls of the workaholic and brainy ex-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was that she and her overly wordy (sometimes constipated) propagandists were just too serious! They didn’t know how to laugh or to at least try to make us — the public — laugh.
Seriously, look at ex-President Erap Estrada. He’s an intellectual lightweight, he’s like a physically overweight and bumbling clown, but people just adore him — or at least 25 percent of our voters in the last election, reportedly. Why? One of the reasons, I think, is because Erap is very, very funny! Love him or hate him, Erap’s just a real-life clown!
Or ex-First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos. Her opinions and actions might seem sometimes logically ludicrous, but she can get away with them because of her inimitable humor.
When investigators and the mass media revealed to the world Imelda’s thousands of shoes in her bedroom closets in Malacañang Palace, instead of a GMA-like grouchy tantrum, the indefatigable Imelda made this classic retort: “At least they didn’t find skeletons in my closet, just shoes!”
Look at ex-President Ronald Reagan. He made fun of the dour communist leaders of the former Soviet Union and doomed them to the dustbin of history! He even concocted that totally ridiculous and outrageous pipe dream — the “Star Wars” weapons system — which had Pentagon officials laughing to death but absolutely terrified the overly serious Soviet komissars to surrender. See, humor is more lethal and more power than a hydrogen bomb!
Laughter is not only good for the health and the psyche of individuals, but beneficial also to the overall national mood and morale of a people. Why, then, be so serious? Give our new President Noynoy and even his kid sister Kris a break.
For those who are wondering why this writer often likes to travel over long stretches of time across different cities and countries, it is not for vacation purposes but to learn more about the world in ways no school or textbook can compete with. One of the things I recently learned from a spry old lady restaurant owner here in Penang — a city last year voted by New York Times readers as the world’s No. 2 best tourist destination due mainly to its exotic and delicious foods — was this, which she told me in Mandarin: “Siaw chay-huey chang-sow.” In English: “Laugh more to live a longer life.”
Is there scientific basis behind that old lady’s advice, or was it just a ploy by that cheerful woman to make me order more kway teow or broad rice noodles, the asam aksa made out of tamarind or to try her duck rice?
Last year, I read in the September issue of Men’s Health magazine that enjoying a hearty laugh can supposedly make us feel younger. It says that one of the big differences between kids and us adults is that children have no worries, while we worry too much. In Pursuit of Excellence author and sports psychologist Dr. Terry Orlick made that observation.
Loma Linda University researchers also claim that laughing often or even just the anticipation of a good laugh decreases so-called “stress chemicals” as cortisol and epinephrine. So laugh your stress away!
Other medical researchers claim that when people watch comedy films and laugh heartily, it has physical heart benefits due to the expanding of our blood vessels. Studies show that people subjected to stressful or suspenseful films suffer the opposite effect: vasoconstriction, or the narrowing of the blood vessels.
I’ve read studies claiming regular doses of good laughter can prevent or lessen the likelihood of heart attack and heart disease. I could verify this interesting bit of information with my cousin, cardiologist Dr. Dy Bun Yok of the Philippine Heart Center, but I’m sure he’d agree that laughter is good for the heart, both psychologically and physiologically.
For Catholic priests or Protestant pastors delivering their Sunday sermons, may I recommend that you consider exploring and expounding on the importance of laughter as a Christian virtue. I’m not kidding here. I couldn’t imagine true Christians who are dour, pessimistic, always angry or bitter. There should be a theology of laughter, as well as a medicine or science of laughter. Why? I believe the guy with the greatest sense of humor in the whole cosmos is none other than God Himself, just look at our world, look at the foibles of us humans… and laugh.
Beyond the spiritual and in terms of physical wellbeing, laughter reportedly stretches our body’s muscles, relaxes our being. More studies are coming out on this fact.
In an old issue of Reader’s Digest, I read that England’s University of Hertfordshire psychologist Richard Wiseman said young kids laugh about 300 times a day compared to us overly serious adults (only 17 times). In a different way, Jesus Christ was also right when he advised us to be like children, we should not only have their innocence and sincerity, but also their sense of laughter.
In the Old Testament of the Bible, Proverbs Chapter 17 and Verse 22 also reminds us what modern-day scientists are only now increasingly proving with so many experiments: “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”
Laugh to burn off calories, boost our immune systems and live healthier!
Studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee show that people who laugh watching comedy films or TV shows actually burn calories because laughing increases the heart rate by 10 to 20 percent and can burn 1.3 calories per minute, at least in one experiment. In comparison, jogging burns up 10 calories per minute.
A study at Stanford University showed that laughter or humor can stimulate that part of our brain that uses the “feel good” chemical messenger called “dopamine.” Wow! That actually puts laughter among other physically and physiologically feel-food activities cited by science, such as eating chocolate or having sex (I’m referring to sex in the context of monogamous and loving marriage)!
Another scientific claim — laughing or smiling squeezes as many as 15 muscles in our face, thus increasing blood flow, making our expressions look pinkish and causing us to beam with a healthy-looking glow. This writer seriously suggests that Dr. Vicki Belo add a “Laughter Treatment” to her menu of beauty services, for I believe no amount of plastic surgery or other cosmetic beautifications can make a frowning or grouchy face look truly beautiful.
Another plus for youthfulness and health in laughing: sometimes we laugh to the point of tears, therefore the expression “tears of joy.” Whether out of sadness or happiness, tears produced by our eyes have been proven to lessen stress in us human beings.
Loma Linda University expert Lee Berk also further claims — believe it or not — that laughing out loud actually produces saliva with supposedly higher levels of disease-fighting agents called immunoglobulins. Other studies claim that laughter can supposedly improve our body’s immune function with higher blood levels of killer T-cells.
And let’s not forget “rags-to-riches” Megaworld/Emperador brandy taipan Andrew Tan who once told me his theory that self-made people like him “have a higher threshold for pain,” thus explaining why many immigrants or self-made entrepreneurs are extremely hardworking, can endure crises and many of life’s difficulties. In 1987, Texas Tech psychologist Rosemary Cogan conducted a study showing that laughter can supposedly have an analgesic effect which increases human beings’ tolerance for physical or emotional pain.
So if we have friends or kin or even see strangers in distress or emotional and physical pain, let us ease their suffering by making them laugh.
China’s Chairman Mao Zedong launched the “Cultural Revolution,” American capitalist Henry Ford and others in the West sustained the industrial revolution, the late Jaime Cardinal Sin (whom I once referred to as “His Turbulence” instead of His Eminence due to his famously seditious sense of humor) and our new President Noynoy Aquino’s late mom ex-President Cory C. Aquino were icons of the 1986 “People Power” Revolution.
Let us start our own history-making global movement equally important and more fun than Al Gore’s no-less-crucial global warming campaign (by the way, the dour but smarter Al Gore lost the 2001 US presidential election to the dumber but infinitely funnier George W. Bush, which is additional proof of the psycho-political significance of laughter!). Let us therefore go forth and ignite a Laughter Revolution.
* * *
Thanks for your feedback, all letters will be answered. Jokes are welcome! E-mail me at Facebook, or WilsonLeeFlores at Twitter or willsoonflourish@gmail.com.