Alligators & Adultitis: Why We Need More Laughter in Life

An alligator can live up to 100 years…

which is why there’s an increased chance they will see you later.

One of the midwives who helped Kim on her journey into motherhood had experience working with the Navajo people. She told us about a custom of theirs in which the first person to make a newborn laugh is obligated to throw the family a huge party to celebrate the occasion. According to their tradition, it’s considered the moment in which the baby is fully present and “in the world.”

I think that’s pretty cool.

You often see people rejoicing over baby’s first words, first steps, and first day of school, but never have I heard a big deal made out of baby’s first laugh. At least not enough to warrant a party to be thrown because of it.

It’s a striking example of how little we value laughter in our society.

What’s weird is that laughter is a universally loved activity, and yet, adulthood often finds us treating it as a non-renewable resource, something to be reserved for when after our work is done. We leave it out of serious and challenging situations, and grow suspicious of people who do too much of it.

Which brings me to alligators.

I don’t know about you, but when I see an alligator, I don’t think, “Here’s a guy who must be the life of every party.” He’s not on my Top 10 list of Animals Who Don’t Take Themselves Too Seriously.

And yet, when he opens his mouth, it looks like he just heard a good joke.

Which gives me hope, because I encounter a lot of people walking around with the sunny disposition of an alligator these days. 

We can all agree that laughter is beneficial. It boosts the immune system (why they say laughter is the best medicine), brings you more energy, lower levels of pain, and protects you from the dreaded Adultitis. Of course, as we get older and inundated with Adultitis, laughs can be hard to come by. 

The good news is that you can literally fake it ’till you make it. 

Believe it or not, fake laughter offers the same benefits as real kind. Certified life coach Katie West says, “Pretending to laugh (or practicing laughter) can alter our body chemistry since our brains can not tell the difference between real and fake laughter.”

I have experienced a group of people fake laughing, and I can tell you, the vibe shift is real. And when people are practicing fake laughs, real ones bubble up like clockwork.

Likewise, we can generate more laughter by being intentional about injecting some fun into your routine:

• Read the funny pages over breakfast.
• Listen to comedy podcasts on your commute.
• Get a joke-a-day calendar for your desk.
• Turn your inanimate objects into Adultitis Booby Traps.
• Hang out with funny people.
• Attend an improv show.
• Read or watch something funny before bed. (At the very least, stop watching the Crisis News Network!)

Stress continues to be a contributing factor to every single thing that kills us, from heart disease to suicide. Yet the standard operating procedure these days is to trudge through life with furrowed brows and steely determination. But now, more than ever, we should take a cue from the Navajo people and celebrate laughter.

Every single laugh is a dollar in the economy of the human spirit.

I get that we live in serious and challenging times, but that doesn’t require us to take ourselves seriously.

St. Teresa of Ávila, a Spanish mystic and great reformer, once said, “May God protect me from gloomy saints.” 

One of the greatest things ever is hearing my kids laugh. Whether it’s a silly little giggle or an unbridled belly laugh, there’s no better sound in the world.

I imagine that God probably feels the same way about his children.

When we laugh, we are happy and free. During that moment of laughter, we are not worried, anxious, or stressed. And so it must give God great joy to see his children buckled over in laughter, just as it does me with my kids.

And reminds me just how much Adultitis must hate it.

All the more reason to make laughter a priority.

As Charlie Chaplin, one of the world’s greatest Adultitis fighters and a patron saint of comedy once said, “A day without laughter is a day wasted.”