Start Your Day with a Laugh or Two And, You Will Be Happy All Day Through

Start Your Day With A Laugh or Two and, You Will Be Happy All Day Through

Laughter is the best way for everybody to start the day. Well, almost everybody. There are some exceptions to this rule.

If you are a lyricist writing about a "Bridge Over Troubled Water", you may want to focus on the gravity of the subject matter. Somehow, "If you're Sad and You Know it Wear a Frown" doesn't have
the same impact.

If you're a mortician (and the person did not die laughing), greeting the family of the deceased with "knock-knock" jokes may be in poor taste. Unless the deceased: dear, beloved Uncle Albert was a comedian, beware of morticians sporting a red nose, size 20 shoes, and offering you a 10 foot handkerchief to dry your eyes.

Finally, if you are one of the main characters in "Macbeth", resist the urge to add a little spontaneous humor, and claim that you are looking for a McDonald's restaurant in the sleepwalking scene. Otherwise, you will no doubt hear the booming voice of the director telling you where to go: "Exit stage left." That may be funny for a cartoon character but, unfortunately, not for you.

Seriously, though, laughter is a great way to start the day. While it may not ensure a day devoid of difficulties, you may laugh just as much as you did when you were a kid. Who can forget the frivolity of flying rubber bands, setting clocks ahead of time and hiding your friend's school clothes during basketball practice. Oh, the "good old" days!!

Before you know it, though, you're an adult and you're paying bills, more bills and yet more bills. On top of that you find yourself responsible for younger folks, older folks, demanding dogs, crafty cats and malicious monkeys. Well, that may be slightly exaggerated. Most of the monkeys I have met in my life have been pretty mellow. But, I digress.

The question remains: "Just how does one start the day with a laugh?" Before I answer that, here's something else you should be asking yourself: "Are there certain situations or people that I should avoid in the morning, so that my mind will be free to receive the cosmic, comedic communication of the cosmos?" If you're not a fan of alliteration nor reside in Boulder, Colorado, you will most likely restate this question in your own words.

Here's a list of things and people that I avoid if I want to start the day off with a laugh: root canals, loads of laundry, malicious monkeys and pushy, political pundits.

Conversely, one way that I like to start the day is by watching a funny video. Just recently, I stumbled upon a collection of short cartoon videos of Dilbert and the gang.

"Dilbert" by Scott Adams appeared on my computer like a pot of gold, a rainbow after a long storm or an oasis in a desert. Good times at work...imagine that!! Dilbert, Dogbert, Pointy-Haired Boss, Alice, and Catbert are a welcome break from the stresses of everyday work. Watch them on video, or read them online or in a book, and you'll be laughing out loud. One suggestion, though, is not to do this during work hours. Your pointy-haired boss may not approve of it and, the next thing you know is that you may be getting HR advice from your cat. And after that....well, I think you know it would be all downhill. Lots of cats, I know give lousy advice. But, I digress again.

So, after watching Dilbert videos and laughing for about 45 minutes, I thought that there must be many other ways to start the day off with a laugh, whether you're at home or at work. Following are a few suggestions. I'm sure that you already have your own ways of providing laughter for you and your co-workers, some of them may even be things that you didn't do in grade school.

I believe that you should start your day with a funny video, cartoon or joke.

Every morning when I check my email, I look forward to my "Cathy" cartoon. I'm rather partial to her since we share the same name and often the same life. You can sign up with UCLICK.GoComics at www.gocomics.com and start receiving your favorite daily comics.

How about creating a statistical chart about amusing or weird topics? Today I compiled a list of birthdates of ten comedians. My goal was to determine if there is a correlation between birthdates and comedy. My list included: Scott Adams, Dave Barry, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Cosby, Lucille Ball, John Lithgow, Don Knotts, Kelsey Grammer, Erma Bombeck and Carol Burnett. Believe it or not, only 20 % of them were born in the Winter. I'm not sure what that means. Possibly it's harder for a baby to laugh on the way home from the hospital if he or she is cold. You know, nobody likes to get the cold shoulder.

While watching humorous videos, reading cartoons and compiling obscure facts, I often like to wear one of my many funny T-shirts. I usually find these online, in stores or at clown conventions. Also, I like to surround myself with trolls, teddy bears in clown gear or stuffed figures with happy faces. It's my own version of feng shui.

Although we have to be serious sometimes, there's plenty of time to laugh. There are countless ways to start the day with laughter whether you're at home, at work or being audited by the IRS. The key is to laugh responsibly. Trying to "write off" expenses following the circus from town to town as mental health therapy, may require a little explaining.

I hope that you all will have days filled with laughter. However, if you're one of those people who is inherently serious and constantly seeking the meaning of life, I leave you with this quote from Woody Allen: "What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case I definitely overpaid for my carpet."