“Men will confess to treason, murder, arson, false teeth, or a wig,” wrote Frank Moore Colby, “How many of them will own up to a lack of humor?”

In my experience the answer is “None.” Ask any gathering for a show of hands who
among them does not have a sense of humor. Not a hand goes up.

Unfortunately, the experience of humor is so pleasant and entertaining, that it is all
too easy to overlook humor’s fundamental roll in maintaining our emotional
balance. However, an understanding of what your sense of humor is up to will help
elevate its importance and increase your respect for it. Your sense of humor has real
work to do and will do it faithfully if you’ll let it.

First of all our mind-body system needs to experience humor. It is essential for our
well being. In fact, our system actually searches for it. An event that happened in
my service club demonstrates this.

For years one particular club member volunteered to compile a scrapbook to
present to the outgoing club president as a memento of his term in office. On one
occasion he was fourteen months late in making the presentation. This happened
because the compiler had experienced an extended illness, which all of us were
aware of. In the presentation ceremony he explained the delay by saying, “When
Chuck became President I had a heart attack.”

The club members erupted in laughed as our sense of humor simply bypassed the
known facts of the statement. Instead it focused everyone’s attention on the
erroneous but comical meaning: “Chuck as President so upset me that I had a heart
attack.”

Notice that there was no “build up” to this comical thought as there is in the usual
structure of many jokes. The thought was not one that anyone even considered.
Instead, it was spontaneous and immediate. The sense of humor, with an energy
force all its own, over rode the clear facts and pulled the comical meaning out of his
factual remark and held it up, letting it glisten like a jewel sparkling in the sunlight.
It rewarded us with laughter and delight.

This search for humor makes sense when we realize that the sense of humor is a
natural part of ourselves. It was a part of human nature long before there were
stand up comics, gag writers and cartoonist. It is not an added feature, sort of after
thought. Our ability to discover and appreciate humor is structured in our very
being.

So what need satisfaction does the humorous experience meet?

A look at where the word “comedy” comes from gives a clue to answer. Remember
the boy in the neighborhood who chose to stay home instead of going with the
others in search of adventure. and how the gang considered him strange and gave
him a few uncomplimentary names.

Well, the word, “comedy” apparently comes from the name of a Greek demigod
named Comus who behaved something like this. As Joseph Meeker, author of The
Comedy of Survival, explains it he was a god quite content to leave great intellectual
matters to Apollo and the driving passions to Dionysus. His attention went to
household affairs seeing to it that the biological processes necessary to keep life
moving along in normal fashion did so: Plants propagated, family and community
life perpetuated., has said, It was the commonplace conditions friendly to life that
Comus sought to keep in good order. Keeping life in balance was his appointed
task.

One’s sense of humor works in much this same way. You’ve experienced it in action
again and again. It happens in work or club meetings where the issues are serious
and the debate long. Suddenly, from out of nowhere someone says something with
a comic ring. The assembly erupts in laughter.

I recall listening to the radio broadcast of the 1952 National Republican Party
Convention during the proceedings in nominating the GOP presidential candidate.
One particular issue ignited a strong floor debate. As it went on and on even sitting
at home you could sense the mounting tension. And then it happened. According to
protocol any delegate recognized to speak had to first announce his or her name
and the State the delegate was from. When emotions seemed near the breaking
point a delegate went to the microphone to be recognized and said, “My name is
John Johnson, I come from Wisconsin.”

The coincidence of this delegate’s identification being identical to the popular
stereotype of a Wisconsin resident was too much for the assembly. to maintain its
strained emotions. The entire assembly was convulsed in laughter. Comus had done
his work.

Often this response is called “comic relief.” But that’s looking at the reaction
through the wrong end of the telescope. It’s not simply relief. It’s your sense of
humor hauling you away from the stress and strain that interfere with your proper
emotional and physiological balance. It’s saying to you. “Hey, you’re too far afield.
Come back where you belong, Over here, where you are relaxed and at your
best.”

(c)2006 Cy Eberhart