Great piece of writing! I've been having similar thoughts about laughter after one of those laughing fits where suddenly you're no longer laughing because of a specific joke but laughing for laughing's sake (perhaps the cosmic joke) and all you can do is let the laughter take you. And what a release that is.
i actually had a paragraph about this kind of laughter but scrapped it in the editing process! some of my favorite memories are of laughs like those :) great minds thing alike!
I did write about this in a different post tho- the one entitled 'life on the dead sea part 2'
"We were on our stomachs, hugging the salty earth beneath us like it was the only way we could keep our souls in our bodies. The laughter had hit us —The Laughter— not the reactionary laughter that comes from a good joke. This was the kind of laughter that comes from the ground. It was as if we had camped out atop a natural geyser of pure, distilled laughter, which was now exploding forth out of the salt, launching us into the sky with each new surge of hysterical guffaws.
There was a cycle to it. It would surge up through us loudly and escalate into the silent but deadly kind of laughing that can feel like the muscles in your chest are ripping themselves off of the bone, like your lungs are tearing at the seams, as it tunnels your vision in an overdose of joy."
That Norm Macdonald quote gets me every time I see it, I swear. It's so profound, so moving. He's right that it is a sin to see the mundane as mundane. God bless him and hold him. May he rest in peace.
Wonderful piece. Brings to mind this exchange with a priest from Beckett's Molloy:
"I told him how worried I was about my hens, particularly my grey hen, which would neither brood nor lay and for the past month and more had done nothing but sit with her arse in the dust, from morning to night. Like Job, haha, he said. I too said haha. What a joy it is to laugh, from time to time, he said. Is it not? I said. It is peculiar to man, he said. So I have noticed, I said. A brief silence ensued. What do you feed her on? he said. Corn chiefly, I said. Cooked or raw? he said. Both, I said. I added that she ate nothing any more.
Nothing! he cried. Next to nothing, I said. Animals never laugh, he said. It takes us to find that funny, I said. What? he said. It takes us to find that funny, I said loudly. He mused. Christ never laughed either, he said, so far as we know. He looked at me. Can you wonder? I said. There it is, he said.
I liked the essey, but I suspect you confused Warsaw Uprising with Warsaw Ghetto Uprising a little bit. There is similar sentence on English Wikipedia about Warsaw Uprising, calling it the biggest military resistance effort in Europe in WWII. I realized Warsaw Ghetto Uprising for sure couldn't be the biggest, because I knew there were overall about 1000 fighters, while not even nearly half of them were armed.
Thanks for this wonderful and light-filled read. I lost my sense of humour for a long while. I became so wrapped up in my neuroses (grasping and clinging) that I just had to play out 'being unhappy' for, well, most of the time. We do create our own suffering when we become too serious. The best advice I ever got in life was from a random dude in my career life when he came up to give me feedback after a talk I gave - he just said "loosen up". It only took me about 30 more years to figure out what he was talking about. 😏😆
Beautiful piece! Norm was truly one of a kind. I remember hearing other comics say that when he sensed he was bombing, he'd lean in and double down on the jokes that weren't working. The "what’s this, a door?" anecdote made me smile. I hadn't heard that one before. His quasi-memoir, Based on a True Story, is one of my all-time favorites.
What a delight it was to read this! As someone who laughs at the drop of a hat and has been made conscious of it one time too many times, this was a relief almost :)
That policy of your mom's is incredible, have been thinking about how to incentivize that, will be doing that ♥️♥️♥️
imma tell her u said so <3
she was elated to hear it
Huge +1 to Hormeze mom's genius here. Instituting this policy with my kids immediately.
Makes sense! I did some volunteer work in a somewhat similar capacity, was definitely meaningful. Glad to hear it resonated :)
Great piece of writing! I've been having similar thoughts about laughter after one of those laughing fits where suddenly you're no longer laughing because of a specific joke but laughing for laughing's sake (perhaps the cosmic joke) and all you can do is let the laughter take you. And what a release that is.
i actually had a paragraph about this kind of laughter but scrapped it in the editing process! some of my favorite memories are of laughs like those :) great minds thing alike!
I did write about this in a different post tho- the one entitled 'life on the dead sea part 2'
https://substack.com/@hormeze/p-124672237
"We were on our stomachs, hugging the salty earth beneath us like it was the only way we could keep our souls in our bodies. The laughter had hit us —The Laughter— not the reactionary laughter that comes from a good joke. This was the kind of laughter that comes from the ground. It was as if we had camped out atop a natural geyser of pure, distilled laughter, which was now exploding forth out of the salt, launching us into the sky with each new surge of hysterical guffaws.
There was a cycle to it. It would surge up through us loudly and escalate into the silent but deadly kind of laughing that can feel like the muscles in your chest are ripping themselves off of the bone, like your lungs are tearing at the seams, as it tunnels your vision in an overdose of joy."
Damn you put this so well. Very poetic. It really does feel dangerous at some point. Well, if I die from laughter so be it. ^^
Amen!
Resonates strongly. Captures a part of why medical clowning is so awesome as a spiritual path.
To laugh amidst suffering is a holy act.
That Norm Macdonald quote gets me every time I see it, I swear. It's so profound, so moving. He's right that it is a sin to see the mundane as mundane. God bless him and hold him. May he rest in peace.
Outstanding piece of writing 👏
To find laughter in amongst even the darkest moments speaks to the beauty of the human soul.
Except for 9/11 as it was a national tragedy.
https://youtu.be/VSZQo0J7f8U
I chuckled from dis one I did
Amazing take kn that issue
Love this!! Laughing at yourself is so important, and I’m trying to get better at it.
Great article.Made my day.Thanks♥️
You are so welcome! Makes my day to hear that :)
Wonderful piece. Brings to mind this exchange with a priest from Beckett's Molloy:
"I told him how worried I was about my hens, particularly my grey hen, which would neither brood nor lay and for the past month and more had done nothing but sit with her arse in the dust, from morning to night. Like Job, haha, he said. I too said haha. What a joy it is to laugh, from time to time, he said. Is it not? I said. It is peculiar to man, he said. So I have noticed, I said. A brief silence ensued. What do you feed her on? he said. Corn chiefly, I said. Cooked or raw? he said. Both, I said. I added that she ate nothing any more.
Nothing! he cried. Next to nothing, I said. Animals never laugh, he said. It takes us to find that funny, I said. What? he said. It takes us to find that funny, I said loudly. He mused. Christ never laughed either, he said, so far as we know. He looked at me. Can you wonder? I said. There it is, he said.
He smiled sadlv."
I liked the essey, but I suspect you confused Warsaw Uprising with Warsaw Ghetto Uprising a little bit. There is similar sentence on English Wikipedia about Warsaw Uprising, calling it the biggest military resistance effort in Europe in WWII. I realized Warsaw Ghetto Uprising for sure couldn't be the biggest, because I knew there were overall about 1000 fighters, while not even nearly half of them were armed.
Thanks for this wonderful and light-filled read. I lost my sense of humour for a long while. I became so wrapped up in my neuroses (grasping and clinging) that I just had to play out 'being unhappy' for, well, most of the time. We do create our own suffering when we become too serious. The best advice I ever got in life was from a random dude in my career life when he came up to give me feedback after a talk I gave - he just said "loosen up". It only took me about 30 more years to figure out what he was talking about. 😏😆
❤️🔥🥲
Beautiful piece! Norm was truly one of a kind. I remember hearing other comics say that when he sensed he was bombing, he'd lean in and double down on the jokes that weren't working. The "what’s this, a door?" anecdote made me smile. I hadn't heard that one before. His quasi-memoir, Based on a True Story, is one of my all-time favorites.
:) yah its a great read! some of the info in this post is from there
What a delight it was to read this! As someone who laughs at the drop of a hat and has been made conscious of it one time too many times, this was a relief almost :)
❤️🔥🥲
This was awesome. Thanks for writing and sharing
Thanks for saying so, it means a lot!