Article in Stretton Focus, October 2014
There’s not a lot to laugh at when you catch a cold. Recently I was coughing and sneezing and swallowing over what felt like a pile of rocks at the back of my throat. At one time I would have shrugged it off in a few days; but now, at my age, it’s a four-week ordeal before I’m back to normal.
I lost my appetite, along with my sense of taste and smell: and a friend said to me “Make sure you don’t lose your sense of humour as well!” That was good advice, although not so easy to take: but at least I had time to think about it!
Smell, taste and appetite are bodily functions, but your sense of humour is more of a spiritual attribute. As such, it needs to be fostered and cared for, so that it grows up healthily and happily, as an integral part of who you are.
A sense of humour can be very useful in helping you keep your balance in life, and not be overthrown by events (dear boy!). The pressure of modern life can be overwhelming, confronted as we are with choices and decisions at every turn, with worries and anxieties taking a heavy toll on our well-being.
A sense of humour, and especially the ability to laugh at yourself, as you charge around doing everything and keeping up with everybody – can take the pressure off, and help you to relax and smile a bit more. Of course each person will have their own appetite for and respond to humour in their own way. The ‘media’ will try to manipulate you with ‘canned’ laughter, so that if you don’t laugh along with the crowd you are judged to be some kind of misfit. More pressure – switch off!
I wonder, does God have a sense of humour? Asking that very question might make you smile, because it’s a nonsense question. Nevertheless, one distinguished theologian some of you might know (Father Harry Williams), said that if the Gospel is true, that God accepts us all unconditionally – that shows God must have a sense of humour! And further, he claimed that “laughter is the purest form of our response to God”.
Donald Horsfield
