Читать книгу Hope’s Daughters - R. Wayne Willis - Страница 88

When thirty-three Chilean miners were entombed in 2010, one of the first stories leaked about them was a light, funny moment. One miner, not knowing whether he or any of them would survive, created a makeshift blond wig and pretended to be a well-known Chilean philanthropist handing out $10,000 to each miner on the day they all got rescued.66

I thought of what Randall Patrick McMurphy, imprisoned like the miners but in a mental hospital, said in One Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest: “I haven’t heard a real laugh since I came through that door. Man, when you lose your laugh, you lose your footing.”

We could call it McMurphy’s law: humor keeps us from losing our footing. Humor, when life gets as dark as a cave or a mine or a mental hospital, helps keep hope alive. If we are serious to a fault, life can get to us, even drive us crazy, especially when the odds are overwhelmingly against us.

Norman Cousins, admitted to the hospital with a potentially terminal diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis, watched Marx Brothers videos and Candid Camera videos as part of his effort to mobilize his salutary emotions. He believed that he could enhance his body chemistry’s healing work. He “made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic affect” and gave him at least two hours of pain-free sleep. Cousins survived his illness. One thing he said he discovered from it was that “hearty laughter is a good way to jog internally without having to go outdoors.”67

Hope and humor act like a tonic, releasing endorphins, our body’s own pain-reducing, immunity-building substance. Someone said: “You have two legs and one sense of humor. If you’re forced with the choice, it’s better to lose a leg.”