Laughing

Becoming less young, I am learning, brings with it an awareness that things are not that funny. What used to bring a chortle or snort are now like a breeze blowing by me with no reaction. We laugh at the unexpected, at the familiar, at the ludicrous. Some laughter, I have found, must happen inside our heads; best not to betray why it got us going. What makes some of my students giggle, I have found, leaves me without words. Laughter amid the empty words we call small talk can often sound, as Proverbs says, like the crackling of twigs in the fire.

Having said that, I admit that some of the best laughter comes from the spontaneous exchange of words, wit, maybe wordplay between people who know each other well enough to weave a meaningful moment.

G.K. Chesterton, an opinion journalist, novelist and poet in the U.K. during the industrial revolution, was known for his disarming way of bringing humor to mind-exploding debate and argument. His logic was inescapable and water-tight. He chose words like a skilled chef selecting greens for a world-class restaurant. Chesterton could out-think the most brilliant minds in the moment, an intellectual olympic sprinter who left opponents standing in the blocks. And he'd leave them smiling.

During the famous 1925 debate between Chesterton and Bernard Shaw, it is said Shaw patted Chesterton on his enormous tummy and asked, "What are you going to name it when it is born?" Chesterton replied, "If it is a boy, I shall call him John; if it is a girl I shall name her Mary; but if it's gas, I shall call it George Bernard Shaw."