PLAY-TITUDE #3: WATCH THE SILLY VIDEOS THAT MAKE YOU LAUGH!

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.  Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.  It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.  Which is what I do, and it enables you to laugh at life’s realities.                               

                                                                ~Dr. Seuss

My mom used to tell me that laughter was good for what ails you.  When a soul is aching, laughter changes the way we are seeing the world.  Laughter lightens the load.  Bad moods are erased by hearty laughter.  Scrooge becomes grateful.  Black becomes white.  Sick becomes well.  And a bad day changes over to good.   The wrong end of the telescope becomes the right end.  Small and large—a good laugh changes for the better.

A few years ago I attending a workshop and during a transition we played “The Laughing Game”.  For one minute we mingled with each other, not saying a word and went from person to person all the while giving the heartiest belly laugh that we could muster.  As we laughed with each other, the laughter became deeper and more contagious.  We laughed ourselves silly.  And then we continued with our workshop in an invigorated and energized mood.  The power of laughter—it takes us to new places.  There are times, alone in my house, that I play “The Laughing Game”—for a minute or 15 seconds.  Laughter energizes me.  It makes me playful and puts me in a new and happier frame of mind.  The Laughing Game gives me the backward look through the telescope of which Dr. Seuss speaks, allowing me to change my perspective through play and silliness.

Laughter is necessary for an attitude of play.  By laughing we enter a world where heaviness is replaced by lightness. Laughter is Play’s artifact.   I have a Laughing Partner.  We play together with one purpose in mind—to make the other laugh.  She is a friend who, for a month, entered into a laughing agreement with me.    Daily we sent an electronic communication to each other that was silly, outrageous and funny.  There were lots of baby and animal videos transferred back and forth that month.  Smiling was not enough—the video needed to elicit a hearty laugh or if it only brought on a smile, we chose to go to that hearty laughter place anyway.  She still sends me an occasional link to something funny as I do for her.    And when I think of her, because of this connection, I laugh.

Today I am going to be YOUR laughing partner.  Laugh loud and laugh hearty.  Even if this doesn’t tickle your laughing bone—laugh anyway.  You will be amazed at how laughter transforms.   Click below to go to your laugh out loud video:

 

Laughing Partner Video

Play-titude #3:  Laughter is play’s artifact.

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for dedicating space and time for teachers and teachers of literacy to come together to share ideas, practice and life experience.