Laughing uncontrollably is
something that happens quite often if you are as easily entertained as I am.
However, I wanted to talk about a situation where a group of friends and I were
laughing uncontrollably in a situation where you wouldn’t expect laughter and
how it helped our one grieving friend and us as a group.
A couple of months ago I
experienced something for the first time. One of my friends, who was my age,
lost his younger brother who was 16. His brother was the batboy for our World
Series baseball team one summer and so I also had a personal relationship with
him. I received the terrible news at 4
am and just laid in bed because I couldn’t go back to sleep. I immediately knew
I had to go and visit my friend and try to support him through this trying
time.
When I arrived it was a somber
scene. Several of our former teammates rode with me and others arrived at about
the same time. At first, it felt like the very house was going to explode with
tension and grief. However, after the initial sadness our friend said he didn’t
want to talk about what had just happened and that he wanted us talk about our
summer we spent on the baseball team together. So we started telling all of the
stories about the dumb things we had done and memories from that summer when we
were 17. In thirty minutes we had at least three bouts of laughter that brought
tears to our eyes about mistakes that had been made and punishments we had
endured because of those mistakes. This
continued for a couple of hours until it was time for us to leave. The mood
returned to the somberness of the arrival as we hugged our friend goodbye.
However, right before we left, my
friend grabbed me and looked me in the eye and told me how much he had needed
this. At the time I was just happy that we had been able to give him a small
vacation from the pain he was feeling but now as I have reflected on it I
believe it speaks to the power of laughter and of friends.
Laughter and especially
uncontrolled laughter is something that can provide for us an escape from
reality. Furthermore, looking back makes me all the more appreciative of my
friends, the memories that we have and the power of laughter.
Thanks for the great blog post. Laughter not only eases tension, but it can also heal.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great story. I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your friend's brother, but it's so fortunate he has friends that could make him feel better. It seems I have heard news like this multiple times this semester, and I have found that laughter is one of the best tools one can use to aid in the grieving process. Late nights of recalling old memories and stories have produced some of the greatest moments of my semester, even if they have followed unfortunate events.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate you sharing this personal story here, because it provides an excellent and real example of the healing benefits of laughter. I know we have discussed all of the negative implications of humor this semester, none of which I had thought about before. However, I still stand firmly by the fact that the ability to laugh is one of the strongest things we have, and without it I don't think we'd be able to handle emotionally difficult situations. It's good to see that you realize this too, and were able to use it to help your friend! I hope he and his family are working through their recovery process, and you as well!