Laughter From The Soul
I was in search for some Munchkin cards yesterday. I couldn’t find what I was looking for at the first couple of places that I went to, so I headed to the mall to the gaming store that is there. I managed to find what I was looking for (and a few books in a series that I have), so I was happy as I left the store.
While heading back out to the car, I passed two girls sitting on a bench laughing uproarously. They both had the signs of Downs Syndrome. They had the round, flat faces with larger-than-normal eyes, but they didn’t seem to care. They were pointing at each other and laughing. Between gasps of laughter one asked, “What are you laughing at?”
The other managed to stop laughing long enough to gasp out, “I’m laughing at you because you’re laughing so hard!”
The first laughed for a few more moments, poked her friend in the shoulder, and yelled, “That’s why I’m laughing at you!”
They seemed to be feeding off of each other in their joy. It cheered me up to know that there are people in the world that can laugh at nothing and have it come from the depths of their soul.
It’s been a long time since I’ve laughed like that, and I miss doing it. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy my life, and I find great amounts of happiness in my friends, wife, pets, and other things in my life. There are a few moments here and there that I laugh at a good joke, a funny event, or a great story that is told. However, the last time I remember laughing for no reason other than to laugh was when I was still living with my grandparents. J.J., Vince, and Heather were at my place late one night, and we were sitting around enjoying being around each other. I don’t know why, but we started laughing our heads off. Part way through our laughter, Vince sputtered, “Ok. Ok. Let’s try not to laugh for the next minu…. BUhahahaaha!” Of course, we didn’t make it a minute. Hell, we didn’t even make it a second. We all fell on the floor laughing until it hurt.
We managed to wake up my grandfather, who came upstairs to investigate. He must have thought that we were stoned out of our gourd (even though we were totally sober.) J.J., Vince, and Heather stayed the night that night, and we were woken up early the next morning to the smell of pancakes. My grandfather was cooking us all breakfast. There were eggs, pancakes, toast, sausage, and bacon. A good country breakfast. My grandfather invited everyone downstairs for breakfast with the comment, “You must have worked up a good hunger last night. Come eat.” I don’t know if he thought we were having an orgy in my room, or getting stoned and had the munchies, or what. Either way, the breakfast was great, and we had a good time with my grandparents around the table.
Someday, hopefully soon, I’ll find something that makes me laugh just for the sake of laughing. I miss that feeling.
