Moliere said, “Unbroken happiness is a bore; it should have ups and downs.” Be honest. Fun doesn’t last.
I always thought that happiness was a relative thing. Not a relative, but relative to who you are and what’s going on in your life. I know some people, for example, who are happy just to wake up in the morning. I know other people who think they would be happy if they didn’t wake up. I don’t understand this attitude because these people would only have the opportunity to be happy once in their whole life.
A friend of mine has more than once accused me of not being a happy person. Naturally, I object to this. After all, you can’t go around smiling all the time. People will think there’s something wrong with you. Moliere said, “Unbroken happiness is a bore; it should have ups and downs.”
I believe this to be true. Be honest. Fun doesn’t last. For example, it was a lot of fun when Joel, Rich and I rode our bikes to the Five and Dime store to buy rolls of caps for our pistols. The fun ended when I slipped off the seat of my English Racer. Trying to do a Lone Ranger running mount, the package of caps exploded in my back pocket when I hit the pavement. I can’t begin to tell you how much not fun that was. All that remained of the pocket was black char, and my butt had a hole in it the size of a fifty-cent piece.
I think I’m a regular American when it comes to being happy. According to Time Magazine (Jan. 17, 2005, The New Science of Happiness), based on their own assessment Americans are overwhelmingly happy and optimistic people, regardless of income. Most people, the article says, find happiness in family connections and friendships. And while Time says only 9% of the people they polled said their spouse brought them the greatest happiness I am 100% in this category.
I admit that I probably could use more laughing. Time says laughter may be one of nature’s cleverest tricks for keeping us healthy and safe. It adds a level of communication to conversation and is capable of creating a wordless bond across a room. I am sure you have noticed how an attack of the giggles can be a lot of fun when the bug spreads around the room.
The article reports that in a clinical study three samples of blood were drawn from volunteers before they watched a one-hour comedy video. Samples were then taken every 10 minutes during the video, and three more samples were taken after. The study concluded that, even after being poked with a needle so many times and losing all that blood people could still laugh. It also concluded that laughter appears to “turn down the spigot” on stress chemicals produced by the body.
In a follow-up study, cardiac patients who watched 30 minutes of comedy a day as an adjunct to medical therapy lowered blood pressure, lowered stresshormone levels, had fewer episodes of arrhythmia and most importantly fewer repeat heart attacks. Laughter got the lungs to move and the blood to circulate. So this study also proved that laughter is a form of exercise.
I have heard that some people laugh all the way to the bank. But Time says that money can’t buy happiness, and that money often gives us more social anxiety then satisfaction. If this is true, then I could put up with a little more social anxiety. I’ll bet you could too.
