The funny bone

When I still lived at home, I always looked forward to reading the new edition of Reader's Digest. (OK, that just made me sound like a first-class geek.) I'd always turn to the "Laughter is the Best Medicine" section, then "A Day in the Life" just to see how witty people could be. I was too young to understand a lot of it, but today I bet I can relate!

Doesn't it feel good when something makes you chuckle or giggle or guffaw? I love that word guffaw. It just sounds like you're laughing your backside off. A big, hearty "ha, ha" from the depths of your belly.

I always feel good after a good belly laugh. Something strikes you as funny and you laugh out loud at first, then the laugh gets quieter and quieter, then you can hardly breathe so your shoulders are sort of shaking and your belly is, too, then the tears come and your face is red as a beet. When we recover, we always say, "Man, that felt good!" or "Boy, I needed that!"

It's the truth. We might find things amusing most days but some days, when it hits you at just the right moment, your laugh bubbles float right to the top and they need release.

Today Jana and I were working on some signage for an automotive promotion we are going to do at an upcoming old car show. The premise of the program is that people can stop by our magazine booth, show us their great find from the parts swap meet and we'll take a picture of it. We're calling it a Swap Meet Showdown because when we thought of the name "Show us your parts," we couldn't get past the image of some guy in a trench coat stopping by to flash us.

So I'm proofing this ad and Jana was very careful to refer to this as the Showdown. But at the bottom, she mentions "Stop by our booth, we may take a picture of you and your part." Just reading it out loud struck that darn funny chord and I had a big, belly-aching laugh. Dang, it felt good, too!

My sister Rayna commented this morning that sometimes my blog makes her laugh. Hey, that's great, but all I'm doing is sharing snippets of my ordinary life ... from the perspective of an undomestic goddess who occasionally finds the positive among the dysfunction. If we can't laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at (I mean, besides family)?

That's what life offers us. Moments to either growl at or guffaw at. It's your choice. Since I'm on a health kick, I'll choose the latter. Laughter is the best medicine after all -- and it's free!