The   World   is   a   Sad   Place

u n l e s s.          .          .

Thanks to the World Laughter Tour and Dr. Steve Wilson

I became a Certified Laughter Leader

in February, 2016

but often

I’m more C E R T I F I A B L E 

than CERTIFIED.        .        .

I recently provided a workshop

for a Hospice Team

that was organized by their FUN COMMITTEE.       .       .

Shortly following the workshop

one of the Nurses on the Team sent me this email:

Chuck, Thanks for the laughs. I think you answered a question for me.  A year ago an acquaintance of my brother and I had posted on FaceBook that she could not tell the difference between us from posted pictures.  My nephew posted that the the pictures where the guy was smiling was my brother.  The other pictures were of his uncle, me.  Since I do not use social media, I wouldn’t have noticed except my daughter pointed out to me how she had put her cousin in his place.  (Such fire can come from gentle souls!)  Since then though I have been checking in with the mirror to see where the smile went  I was most puzzled because (1) My nickname in high school was “ear to ear,” and (2) I thought that I was smiling.  I have been watching my peers in team and I have noticed that we do not smile except the we are laughing.  As I watched you, I did not see a smile except with laughter.  When your face relaxed the corners of your mouth relaxed downward.  I have a voice from the past that says, “It  takes more  muscles  to  frown  than  to  smile.”  What has happened?  I think that it is this: Both smiles and frowns are surface expressions and quickly deceive  Of the two, though, are work allows for the frown as the more acceptable.  I think that we spend a great deal of effort in the trenches where smiles are inappropriate.  We have lost the ability to smile from disuse of smiling muscles  So though we may be smiling on the inside, our faces do not show it.  I do not think that this is either good or bad.  I thing that it as the artist, Chuck Close has said, “The  face  is  a  road  map  of  a  person’s life.”  You showed me today that you do not have to be able to smile to be able to laugh,  Hohohahaha, YEAH! Thanks.

How about an

“A”

for paying way more than just Attention

but   for  really

N        O        T        I        C        I        N        G

Harry Chapin

is still one of my favorite musicians.        .         .

He died tragically in a car accident

on July 16, 1981, at 39 years of age.        .         .

He wrote a song,

L  A  U  G  H      M  A  N

that I’ve always related to personally and publicly

long before becoming a Certified Laughter Leader

.         .         .maybe it embodies and describes the essence of all of us:

https://youtu.be/ZpQ_eqi4UKU

The   World   can   be   a   really   sad   Place.        .          .

u n l e s s

I   make   it   a   different

r            e            s            i            d            e            n            c            e

join me

in proving

w     h     o     e     v     e     r

L       A      U      G      H      S

l    a    s    t    s.       .       .

Let’s    be    about

P        R        O        V        I        N        G                 I        T