Can a Good Laugh Heal Our Nation?

 

I believe so … there is a message in this for our President and Speaker of the House, so please read on …

I come from a family of hearty laughers. Whenever I am in a room with my sisters or cousins, the laughter echoes off the walls and through the room, out the door, and into the streets.

My earliest memories are of my dad Gene laughing with his brothers and sisters. I’ve never met any who can laugh or make you laugh as hard as my grandfather John Moore, or his two sons, Ward and Gene. I am laughing just sitting here thinking about them. They have passed on, but their laughter lives on through others in my family. Laughing is coded into the genetics of the Moore family, and for that I’m grateful. Nothing was funnier as a child than watching milk squirt out of my sister Kim’s nose when she broke out laughing at the dinner table.

Everyone is familiar with the phrase, “Laughter is the best medicine.” Old wisdom is often the best wisdom. But is it true?

Cancer Treatment Centers of America seem to think so. “Laughter Therapy” is list on their website. They don’t claim laughing cures cancer, but they do stress that humor is a useful and effective component of their overall treatment. The patient’s attitude and state of mind, in some circumstances, is a potent medicine.

Maybe there are too many prescriptions, and not proscriptions against humorlessness.

Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, and, along the way, improves resistance to disease. Laughter releases endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can temporarily relieve pain. The evidence is overwhelming: Laughter is of great benefit in remaining physically and emotionally healthy.

Laughter is credited with:

• Promoting relaxation
• Improving sleep
• Strengthening social bonds
• Improving overall attitude
• Producing a general sense of well-being

Laughter has also shown to provide many physicals benefits as well, such as:

• Boosting the immune system
• Enhancing oxygen intake
• Stimulating the heart and lungs
• Relaxing muscles
• Easing digestion
• Relieving pain
• Improving blood pressure
• Improving mental functions
• Releasing endorphins

Laughter really is the best medicine?

Many illnesses can be passed from person to person, but laughter is the only cure that is contagious. Who hasn’t broken into uncontrollable laughter just watching someone else laugh? If so, we have the power to improve our health while spreading laughter and better health to others.  This uniquely human attribute is part of our survival kit, and we have the power at this very moment to improve our personal health and well-being while passing the same benefit to others around us.

If the political discourse swirling around us today is any indication, crying and laughing are the only choices. Laughter feels better, and it is actually useful. Maybe Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her husband should go on a double date to a comedy club with President Trump and the First Lady. I think if they enjoyed a social evening out and shared a good belly laugh, they might find common ground on the issues important to the nation and get back to doing the peoples’ business.

I remember watching President Ronald Reagan and then-Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neil, laughing together. It is undeniable that they did not like each other that much, and they were polar opposites when it came to politics, but they still found a way to work together for America’s common good.

Will you join me in calling out the President and Speaker of the House on this?

Mr. President and Speaker Pelosi, “We the People” want to see you laughing together and not at one another! Take a night out. Go on a double date with your spouses to a comedy club (Secret Service protection included) and get some of the anger and vitriol out of your minds and hearts, at least for a time. Our nation needs you to come together, and there is nothing more helpful than a good belly laugh.  For the good of the nation, for one night only, have a drink (Yes, Mr. President, you can have a Coke), enjoy a good meal, and let a few comedians help solve the problems you seem unable to tackle alone. Will you do your patriotic duty and stop fighting long enough to share a laugh?

If you really care about us, you will give it a shot. Nothing else you two are doing is working.