WhataboutawaterbottleWiddle?

"The highlight of my childhood was making my brother laugh so hard that food came out of his nose." ~Garrison Keillor

My favorite movie scene perhaps of all time is in Mary Poppins in the tea party scene at Uncle Albert's where their laughter lifts them to the ceiling.
I love hearing people laugh uncontrollably. I love when laughter becomes contagious. I love when people get the giggles at inappropriate times and try to hide it. I love laughing until I cry and get asthma. I love not being able to stop laughing no matter how hard I try. When I think about laughing (especially the uncontrollable sort), I think a lot about my time at Governor's School.

I remember a particular class my senior year at Governor's School when we were reading Ovid's Metamorphoses and talking about the story of Ceyx (Sigh-Ex) and Alcyone. Our teacher was a loud (and utterly amazing) Northerner who didn't realize that when she said Ceyx, it sounded exactly like a really redneck version of SEX and coming from her it was really hilarious. It sent the entire class into giggles. At first, it struck the funny bones of only a few, and we tried to hide our grins. And then she said it again, and more joined in. She stopped and said, "What?" and we all laughed harder. She shook it off and started talking again, and after the third time realized why "Ceyx" sent us into such a state, but by that time it was too late. She tried unsuccessfully to get us back on track (though she was fighting it as well). Most of us were silently convulsing with laughter, tears streaming down our faces. Someone actually left the room to gather herself. After it should really have been getting old, I tried so hard to stop. I just buried my face in the crook of my elbow and snorted into my sweater. Afterwards, none of us could dare look at anyone else for fear that we would all start up again. That was definitive happiness.

There was also the classic electronic whoopie cushion episode in Jan's class. I forget who owned it, only that Jan confiscated it later on because she was worried that we would take it to the Emrys Poetry reading (and really, I wouldn't have put it past us). Jan was talking to us about sestinas or something (it was definitely our form poetry days) and we kept passing that thing around and pushing the button at every break. "Blah Blah Blah Blah.....PPPppppplllluuubbbb.....Blah Blah Blah.....BBBBPPPppppppttssst....What is that?" By the time she caught on people were literally crippled in hysterical laughter. Jan was such a good sport, though.

Also Governor's School related was the time our writing class went to the classically horrid Emrys Poetry reading where we saw that god-awful slam poet with (I kid you not) a really pronounced lisp. She was probably 45 years old and writing really bad slam poetry about her shoebox of sexual secrets. All twenty of us in the writing department were covering our mouths and holding our noses and biting our lips, desperately trying to keep from laughing. In a classic good-cop, bad-cop moment, George was just grinning his silly old grin which didn't help us at all, and Jan was shooting us ferocious glances that said "If ya'll don't knock it off, I am going to tear you all to pieces all the way back to the dorms." But really.....a slam poet with a lisp talking about her Sheckshual ShoeBocksh of Shecretsh...

I feel like I laughed my way through Governor's School. Maybe that is why I look back and see those years as the happiest of my life. It seems like I was either laughing or crying the whole time and not much in between. And for the most part, the crying was cathartic (and usually in the context of a writing workshop) or at least a joint endeavor.

Come to think about it, I think crying and laughter are pretty much the same thing from physiological standpoint. Think about it. Your diaphragm is doing the same thing. Your breathing is short and forceful. Weird noises emerge from your throat. It hardly matters that one springs from joy and the other sorrow (or sometimes joy). And in either case, your mind has very little control over what the rest of you is up to.

So here's to laughter!