Make ’em laugh

It’s been several years since I attended a talk by a person with a very positive outlook. He had more than his share of misery in his life, but he wasn’t about to let it define him. He took the high road and used humor for healing.

Many in the audience, if not all, most likely had bad things happen in their lives along the way. There are many ways to handle the bad stuff, and much of it is destructive, but this guy looked for the humor in even the most dire circumstances.

Before long, he was tossing red foam rubber clown noses into the audience, urging us to swallow our inhibitions and put them on. It is next to impossible not to at least smile in a room full of red noses, no matter how cranky or silly you may feel.

I brought a red nose home with me and placed it, rather appropriately I thought, in our bathroom medicine cabinet. From that day on, when someone was feeling down or found themselves sick in bed and feeling like they’d never see the sun again, I would go to the cabinet, put on the red nose and bring a little cheer to Mr. Grumpy Pants. It was silly, but it was a temporary fix, and that was a good thing. Laughter truly is the best medicine for whatever ails you.

I found this also works for crabby little kids who will try their darndest not to crack a smile while trying to be mad. OK, let me rephrase. Crabbiness isn’t necessarily the private domain of children. I know some much older people who want to hold a grudge and almost enjoy being angry for as long as they can before giving in to teasing and downright silliness by the person they’re trying to be mad at.

The red nose comes in handy at times like these, too. No words are needed. Just stick it on your nose, give a quick turnaround and watch that frown turn into, at the very least, a smirk. It depends on their degree of crabby.

It’s ironic how a clown in full makeup, including a red nose, can be frightening to some people, children in particular, but a red nose on Grandma? A whole different story, and a pretty funny one at that.

This whole image takes me way back to the days of Red Skelton and Milton Berle, their costumes and slapstick comedy that we found so hysterical in the 1950s. Would our grandkids find them as funny as we did? I doubt it. They would take one look, roll their eyes, mutter something negative and leave the room feeling a little sorry for us. I don’t care. I still think we old geezers grew up in the best of times.

I wonder if I still have that red nose. The time might be right to bring it out again. I’ll take a look at Amazon. Maybe I can buy a boxful and pass them out to Ol’ Bill’s cronies at the McDonald’s coffee table. That would be a good place to start.

We need a little laughter these days.