Laugh 4

Installment #4 from Chapter 3 of "Life's Greatest Lessons" by Hal Urban. If you are just here for the first time and would like to start reading from the beginning, you will find it all at my label Good For A Laugh. This is part of my commitment to post every day of September about Laughing and it's gifts to us:


The first movie was Zorba the Greek. It's the story about a relationship between two men, Zorba and Boss. Boss has looks, intelligence, health, money and education. He's also a good person who's all locked up inside; he doesn't seem to enjoy life. He reads and he thinks, but doesn't have fun. He's looking for the missing piece. I found my self identifying with Boss. Then Zorba tells him, "You've got everything, Boss, except one thing: madness. A man needs a little madness or he never does cut the rope and be free." At the end, Zorba teaches Boss to dance, to laugh, and to let go.

The other movie was A Thousand Clowns. It's also the story about a relationship, this one between Murray and his eleven year-old nephew, Nick, whom he is raising alone. Murray's main concern for Nick is that he not grow up to be a Norman Nothing, one of "those nice dead people" who become so serious that they forget how to enjoy life. He wants Nick to be able to see "all the wild possibilities", and to "give the world a little goosing" when he gets the chance. Most important, he wants Nick to look around and to be able to laugh at what he sees.

Most of us need a Zorba or a Murray to remind us to not get bogged down, to not take life and ourselves too seriously. I don't want to imply that either Zorba or Murray are mindless clowns. On the contrary, they're quite deep. They know that life is hard and that it's not always fair, but they also know that the only way to survive it is to get plenty of laughs along the way. And we get those laughs when we look for them. Programs like Candid Camera and America's Funniest Home Videos are funny simply because they hold up a mirror to us. They show us pictures of real life. Life is funny. There's comedy all around us. We just have to look for it. As Murray says, there's a need to see "... all the cartoons that people make by being alive."

To be continued....

Stayed home a good part of the day then went to town to have tea & a salad with DJ, her husband Rolland joining us later when he got off work. Reba went with me and, as always, sat in the back of the truck waiting for me and keeping her eye on me the entire time (we sat by the window). Some people were talking to me about her. Several opportunities to laugh presented themselves to me and I took advantage, lol. Later I went to WalMart to pick up a couple things I didn't really need... sigh.

I am grateful to be free to do what I want to do when I want to do it.
I am grateful I always have enough...
I am grateful for my wonderful sense of humor.
I am grateful I can now (finally) see that I am a great person. If I wasn't me, I'd want to be friends with me.
I am grateful ... period!!