Conference turris::womannotes-v3

    "If we couldn't laugh, we'd all go insane"
    
    Jimmy Buffett

    I have read somewhere that laughter speeds healing, helps reduce
    stress, and generally adds color to an otherwise bland life.  I agree
    with all of these, and more.
    
    -Jody
    

�11.211                    
�CSC32::M_VALENZA "Whistle while you note."            

	To paraphrase Mike V :  (BTW- who I think has the right idea)

    Well, for those who can't find some of =wn= funny, there is always 
    the Serious Topic.  :-)
					Kbear

    

    RE: .3 (Jody)

>    I have read somewhere that laughter speeds healing, helps reduce
>    stress, and generally adds color to an otherwise bland life.  


	... not to mention lowering blood pressure and building abdominal 
	muscles.

	Hmmm -- maybe this should be in the "serious" topic.



	>>AL<<

    	RE: .1  Herb

    	> Sometimes those horrible things that hurt so much need to be faced!

    	What makes you assume they aren't being faced (if that's what you're 
    	trying to suggest)?

    	> If we can recognize our laughter as 'nervous laughter' (when it is,
    	> e.g. like whistling in the dark), and save our tears for a more
    	> apppropriate time, (e.g. when alone or with close ones), then *that*
    	> 'nervous laughter' works just fine.

    	Most of the laughter I see in this conference doesn't fall into this
    	category.  There are some genuinely funny people here (some of whom
    	are able to approach touchy situations with genuine humor that evokes
    	full-blown laughter - which is something entirely different from
    	nervous laughter.)

    	Some laughter is out of pure frustration - but I still wouldn't
    	call it nervous laughter.  It's an outlet (like joking when you
    	stub your toe.)

    
    	RE: .9  Herb
    
    	Glad to hear it.
    
    	It would be sad to think your perceptions about this community
    	could be off as far as they sounded.  ;^)
    

    
    	RE: .11  Herb
    
    	Wow, your perceptions *are* way off base.
    
    	My message wasn't written with any sarcasm at all.
    
    	Your note seemed to mean that your remarks in .1 were not directed
    	to this community, which came as a relief to me (since they were
    	so obviously off base compared to my own perceptions of what is
    	happening here.)
    
    	If you can't tell when someone is making a straight comment to
    	you, it's no wonder you don't see the genuine humor here, either.
    

    
    No fighting in the laughter topic.
    
    Justine

    We've got a topic on laughter that's getting serious and the serious
    topic which is getting silly. :-)
    
    Mary
    

    that's because people are nuts
    

    
    	RE:  The Serious topic and The Laughter topic
    
    	One is humorous, while the other one is ABOUT an aspect of humor.
    

    A good laugh is abut as close as you can get to an orgasm without sex.
    It's usually better with a partner however. :*)

    There have been a few articles in Prevention Magazine about the
    benefits of laughter and good humor. It can, quite literally, save your
    life. Not to mention make the life you're living more fun.

    It's hard for me to stay angry with someone after we've had a good
    laugh together. It builds comraderie. It shows a mutual appreciation of
    the absurdity of the situations we humans can get ourselves into.

    But most of all, it's great good fun. If all you can see is the serious
    side of life you'd best not stop by my desk. Even when I'm having one
    of my depressions I can laugh occasionally and don't care for people
    who won't. Life's hard enough without those who are determined to be
    grim intruding, who needs them? liesl

    re .20, Liesl, even though I enjoy laughing, I've always felt that
    eating lobster is as close as you can get to an orgasm without sex.
    
    Lorna
    

    Liesl works downstairs from me, but I can always tell when she is in
    the area from her laughter. :-)
    
    -- Mike

I think we laugh for the same reason we nod Ohhhh Yeeesss when
reading certain poems, or hearing someone say something
perfectly apt and not-thought-of-lately -- or ever.
It touches some part of us. It resonates within us,
like some poetry, some art, some [insert what touches you].

> Dana on .0  What do you think ?

As for Heinlein's "we laugh because it hurts so much," that's
a cliche that's been around for too long -- it's a notion
that draws far too simple a hide on a complex beast. Perhaps
we keep repeating it because it puts a sensitive, caring face
on some hardy-har-hars that nice people would not commit. 
If you total a thousand jokes and witticisms, a great 
percentage have zero to do with anyone's pain. 

Come on ... how many of us have throughly enjoyed "What's 
green and lives in the ocean?" or "How do you tell if there's
a elephant in the refrigerator?"  Likewise, devoted comedy
fans may remember Steven Wright's first appearance on the
Tonight Show. The audience went wild laughing when he
invited a freezing, wet cold bird into a warm kitchen ...
they they roared again when he asked the bird, "Want some
eggs?"  But they laughed at both a wild logical twist and a 
moment of dread.

On an academic note, one facet of laughter has been measured.
The details escape me but ... one emits identical brain waves 
by having a belly-laugh or a petite-mal seizure.  
Anyone know the brainwaves of organism?  

Justine and Dana, Hope I'm not trodding on the spirit of this
string, but the laughter-is-pain theory rather annoys me.
Along with its first cousin, "you can't dream or imagine your
own death." Sounds true, but if you talk to fifty people who have
had serious auto-accidents, at least two will tell you they
were convinced they were alread dead. (Not out-of-body and
no glowing white lights in the distannce. Just plain ole' dead
on the pavement.)  Why we ignore our own experience -- not knowledge,
but experience, befuddles me.

Meigs

>    A good laugh is abut as close as you can get to an orgasm without sex.
>    It's usually better with a partner however. :*)

    Leisl,
    
    Laughing is great but I'd prefer a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese.
    
    8^D ,
    Kate

    
    > .20 liesl  a good laugh is about as close as you can get to an orgasm
    
    > .21 Lorna  eating lobster
    
    > .24 Kate   pepperoni pizza with extra cheese
    
    When I eat pasta, there are times that I feel sinfully wonderful !
    
    A few times in my life I have started to laugh hysterically after
    an orgasm.
    
    Rich

               
   
   > A few times in my life I have started to laugh hysterically after
   > an orgasm.
   > 
   > Rich
    
    My dear man. I'd have thrown your butt right out of bed! 
    
    
    
    Kate  (;^))
    
    

    
    But laughter can be contagious...
    
    :-)
    
    CQ

    
    Apparently there is a very fine line between the emotions of laughing
    (happiness) and crying (sadness).  That's why very often when you are
    told very bad news your first reaction is to laugh, even though that
    action is totally inappropriate and you don't know why you're doing it.
    
    Sorry if that's getting too serious!
    
    Sam
    

re. Note 436.23                         
MOMCAT::CADSE::GLIDEWELL 
    
>As for Heinlein's "we laugh because it hurts so much," that's
>a cliche that's been around for too long -- it's a notion
>that draws far too simple a hide on a complex beast. Perhaps
>we keep repeating it because it puts a sensitive, caring face
>on some hardy-har-hars that nice people would not commit. 

>Justine and Dana, Hope I'm not trodding on the spirit of this
>string, but the laughter-is-pain theory rather annoys me.

    Meigs, I offered Heinlein's idea as a jumping off point. I do
    agree that it is valid in some instances, but certainly not all.
    It totally ignores true joyous laughter, which I believe *does*
    exist, although not as much as I'd like. 
    
    Dana
   

    
    Hey, Meigs, you must have me confused with someone else.  I never said 
    anything about the laughter-is-pain theory, though sometimes I do laugh 
    so hard my stomach hurts and my eyes water  :-)
    
    
    Justine

    RE:.25
    
    I've done the same thing, and have _never_ gotton thrown out of bed (on
    purpose, anyway).  ;-)
    
    Nanci

    I have a son who's gone through some rather difficult times.  He has
    made some changes to his life, and I have noticed something recently
    in his behavior - he laughs more.   Real, laughter, not nervous
    twitters, or something that's just pretend.  But when he's reading a
    good & funny book, or watching a funny TV program, he breaks out in
    honest gutsy laughter.  I love it!!
    
    
    -m

    
    As a sideline, I have been known to wake up in the middle of the night
    laughing hysterically.  It usually takes me about 10 minutes to calm
    down and go back to sleep and even then I wake up with a smile and
    can't stop giggling the next day.  Very often I don't know what I
    dreamt that was so funny.
    
    One night in particular, I had my (then) partner very worried because I
    couldn't stop and he thought I was having some sort of attack.  Of
    course I couldn't stop laughing to tell him it was alright.  He wasn't
    too pleased in the morning either because not only had I given him a
    scare but he didn't sleep much for the rest of the night because I was
    giggling all the time!
                                     
    		Holly

    	My son Ryan used to laugh in his sleep when he was an infant.

    	The first time my parents heard him do this, he was 5 1/2 months
    	old.  We were staying with them, and I was at the movies.  It
    	was around 8:30p and they heard this loud baby laughter coming
    	from our room.  Ryan would break into a full, belly-shaking
    	laugh which would bring them running into our room.

    	They'd look at him, and his eyes were closed.  When he stopped
    	laughing, he'd roll over (never opening his eyes at all.)

    	We could never figure what he found so funny in his sleep.

    
    This discussion reminded me of the following, which I first read a
    couple of years ago (and still find intriguing).  The source is listed
    at the end, and I definitely recommend the whole book.
    
    Nool
    
    
       "...smiles, and the comic in general, are the stigmata of original
    sin, or, to put the matter another way, they are the attributes of our
    humanity, the result of and the witness to our violent separation from
    the natural world.  The smile is the sign of our duality; if at times
    we make fun of our own selves with the same acrimony with which we
    laugh at others every day, it is because we are, in fact always two:
    the I and the other.  But the violent emissions of the phallus, the
    convulsions of the vulva, and the explosions of the ass wipe the smile
    off our face.  Our principles totter, shaken by a psychic earthquake no
    less powerful than earthquakes in the ground beneath our feet.  Deeply
    disturbed by the by the violence of our sensations and mental images,
    we pass from seriousness to hearty laughter.  The I and the other
    become one, and what is more, the I is possessed by the other.  Hearty
    laughter is similar to the physical and psychological spasm: we burst
    out laughing.  This explosion is the contrary of the smile, and I am
    not certain that it can be called comic.  The comic spirit includes two
    persons: the one who is watching and the one who is being watched,
    whereas when we laugh heartily the distinction is erased, or at least
    diminished.  A burst of laughter not only suppresses the duality, it
    also obliges us to become one with laughter in general, with the great
    physiological and cosmic turmoil of the ass and the phallus - the
    volcano and the monsoon."
    
    
       "A burst of laughter is also a metaphor:  the face becomes a phallus,
    a vulva, or an ass.  On the psychological level a burst of laughter is
    the equivalent of what the expressions of poets and satirists are on
    the verbal level. ... The result is a transmutation:  we leap from the 
    world of of duality, ruled by the reality principle, into that of the
    myth of original unity.  A fit of laughter is not merely a response to
    the pleasure principle, nor its copy or reproduction (even though it is
    both these things):  it is the metaphor of pleasure.  Hearty laughter
    is a (provisional) synthesis between the soul and body, the I and the
    other.  This synthesis is a transformation or symbolic translation...
    Once again:  hearty laughter is a regression to a former state; we
    return to the world of our own childhood, either individual or
    collective, to myth and play.  We return to the primordial unity
    -before there was a _you_ and an _I_ - in the form of a _we_ that
    embraces every living being and every element." 
    
    
    Quoted from: Octavio Paz, Conjunctions and Disjunctions
                 Translated by Helen C. Lane
                 � 1969 Editorial Joaqu�n Mortiz, S.A.
                 English Translation
                 � 1974 The Viking Press, New York

    
    
    "You have to be a little crazy to keep from going insane."
    
    	first heard from my voice teacher years ago
    
    

    
    "He deserves Paradise who makes his companions laugh."
    
    The Koran
    
    From my quote a day calendar, Wednesday, October 24, 1990

"Without humor, life just wouldn't be funny anymore."

Wavy Gravy

    re: .36
    
    "If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane."
    .
    .
    .
    "If we weren't all crazy we would go insane."
    
    		Jimmy Buffett
    		Changes in Lattitudes, Changes in Attitudes
    
    John