October 15, 2019 —By Frances Kolarek —
Let’s start the New Year with a laugh. There’s 107-year-old Evelyn Elliott, a fanatic of the Buffalo Bills football team. Never misses a game. Asked if she had taken a shine to a handsome 33-year old player she replied. “Oh, he’s too old for me!”
If a 107-year-old woman can laugh at herself, so can you. Try it.
Laugh. At yourself. At your critics. “Studies have shown that laughter can reduce stress, improve your immune system, even relieve pain,” according to Dr. Jay Cohen, in the AARP magazine.
My doctor has a loose-leaf binder in his waiting room labeled “Laughter—the Best Medicine.” One reason I like him so much.
These days the op-ed pages carry anxiety-ridden, nail-biting pieces about aging and its pitfalls by men and women standing at its portals —as if they could DO anything about it. Age happens. Sorta like laughter when we hear a really funny story.
There are even laughter clubs, some of whose members suffer a chronic illness and go to laugh and feel better. You can find one near you by Googling laughteryoga.org.
And then there’ s simply not taking everything too seriously. Finding the humor in stuff that happens all the time. A few of my readers may remember when the comic strips thought slipping on a banana peel was hilarious. Today, it’s the cartoon of the six-year old on the phone to Grandma, explaining how to do email.
By the way, did you ever stop to wonder how Noah kept the Ark lit? Flood lights!
But you have to watch your step these days about whom you ridicule. The PC police are right there if you make fun of just about anybody. Anybody except us old people, that is. It’s quite all right to make geezers the butt of your jokes. Go ahead. Let us have it. Ridicule us. Your turn will come. HAH!