Monday, February 08, 2010
Should we be spending more time crying?
You know how they say "Children laugh 400 times a day, while adults laugh only 15"? Apparently, that started with Norman Cousins, whose book, Anatomy of an Illness was a most convincing journey into the healing powers of laughter and play.
According to Allen Klein, widely recognized humor maven, maybe the child's daily laugh count is not actually 400 times a day. But it's still a lot more than adults. Which is why we have people who are professionally helping us to laugh more. Even when we don't particularly feel like it. Even when we can't really find anything to laugh about. Just because it's healthy.
After much serious contemplation, I've come up with yet another irreverently relevant observation. Not only do children laugh more than adults, they also cry more.
So I'm postulating here that maybe the implications for a healthier adulthood are not just that it's better for us to laugh more, but also maybe even to cry more. Surely we can make ourselves cry almost as easily as we can make ourselves laugh. And, as long as we're the only one's that are making ourselves do it, maybe it's just as healing, making ourselves cry more, as it is making ourselves laugh more.
I don't know. I'm more of a postulator than a researcher. But I have personally and repeatedly observed that sometimes crying, like at the movies, or with someone I love, feels kind of delicious. Kind of healing. Kind of, even, fun.
from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith
According to Allen Klein, widely recognized humor maven, maybe the child's daily laugh count is not actually 400 times a day. But it's still a lot more than adults. Which is why we have people who are professionally helping us to laugh more. Even when we don't particularly feel like it. Even when we can't really find anything to laugh about. Just because it's healthy.
After much serious contemplation, I've come up with yet another irreverently relevant observation. Not only do children laugh more than adults, they also cry more.
So I'm postulating here that maybe the implications for a healthier adulthood are not just that it's better for us to laugh more, but also maybe even to cry more. Surely we can make ourselves cry almost as easily as we can make ourselves laugh. And, as long as we're the only one's that are making ourselves do it, maybe it's just as healing, making ourselves cry more, as it is making ourselves laugh more.
I don't know. I'm more of a postulator than a researcher. But I have personally and repeatedly observed that sometimes crying, like at the movies, or with someone I love, feels kind of delicious. Kind of healing. Kind of, even, fun.
from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith
