Cchicken's Weblog

I just finished reading a Christmas gift, A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink (thanks, Andrea:).  It is mainly about how most ’successful’ people in recent times are products of the left brain; logic, mathematics, that sort of thing, and that in the future, successful people are going to need to rely on their right brains more.  A scientific book that supports the necessity of yoga and such practices in a healthy balanced life- definitely a good read for anyone.  One chapter in particular caught my interest- Play.

In the chapter about play, Pink spends some time describing the benefits of laughter.  ”Laughter can decrease stress hormones and increase the immune system…it activates the cardiovascular system, increases the heart rate, and pumps more blood to internal organs…”  He discusses the source of laughter.  Although adults often need a stimulus to create the laughing response, Pink notes that children “don’t really grasp humor early in life, yet they laugh from the time they are infants.  In fact, folklore has it that children laugh hundreds of times a day and adults barely a dozen.”  I was reading this part at the gym, and nearly fell off the eliptical machine on account of my own laughter, recalling the laughing fits of my class that very day.

Children do laugh ALL THE TIME.  And they definitely don’t ‘grasp humor.’  The joke that set off the class into an uncontrollable fit lasting far longer than required was this:

Why did the ant cross the road?

Because he wanted his butt back.

Do you get it?  I don’t get it.  I’m not sure if the laughter came from saying the forbidden ‘potty word’ butt, or from the idea of an ant without his rear end, or just the idea of a ‘joke’ caused the ruckus in the classroom.  I probably will never get to know what was so darn funny about that joke, but I do know 8 small children went home feeling especially funny yesterday, and that just watching them and joining in the fun made my day a hundred times brighter.

My husband laughs at just about anything…truly…anything…stuff that really isn’t funny at all, and I suppose that is one reason he’s able to deal with stress in the way that he is.  Between my crazy puppy, wild students, and laughing husband I’m going to take some lessons in laughing more regularly.  It does feel good, indeed.  Hopefully my students will start to supply me with better jokes than ones that end in the same punch line every time- “A banana that is going to eat you up.”  Don’t ask.