Where is your sense of humor? Can you locate it somewhere on your body? How does it relate to your other five senses?

If your body is firing on all cylinders, you can touch, taste, smell, see, and hear. It’s how you ‘make sense’ of the world.

At some point in our evolution, the order in the hierarchy of senses changed. Prior to the industrial revolution humanity was hearing-oriented.

We lived in an auditory three-dimensional space that was attuned to vibrations. Once the Western eye of the artist and architect prevailed, sight became ascendant.

Calling humor a sense is kind of odd when you think about it. When something is funny, we don’t generally don’t taste it or smell it or feel it, although the sight or sound of something that tickles our funny bone can certainly bring a laugh.

When we say that someone has a “good sense of humor“ we are usually referring to someone who has a light hearted attitude and an eye for the absurd in everything. Someone who lacks one is seen as serious, taciturn, or even curmudgeonly.

Professionally funny people have a special key inside them that unlocks mirth in others. They understand that laughter is contagious, much like yawning. It can transcend culture and language.

Humor is entirely subjective, there is no common baseline that holds true across the board. Flavors of humor abound, it can be subtle, overt, deadpan, ironic, or even slapstick. Humor can be a tool for social change — satire can sting where insults fall flat.

It can also be a barometer of consciousness. Someone who takes delight in the misfortunes of others, or who laughs at the teasing of the downtrodden is showing their true colors and is best to be avoided. Not all jokes are kind. The malevolent laugh is a staple of villainy.

People tend to underestimate the heavy lifting that levity does in our lives. Laughing together in good spirits is one of humanity’s greatest gifts. Levity lightens us up. Developing a knack for finding the humor in the everyday ups-and-downs is to live a life of optimism where the glass is always half full.

I couldn’t guess where your funny bone is, you’d have to tell me. It was remarks I ran across recently by Kelly Carlin, talking about her father George, that got me thinking about the power of mirth this week.

“My dad used to say that when you’re laughing, your heart and your mind are open. There’s something about that shared space.“

May the space between you and yours be filled with mirth in the week ahead! Much love till next Monday!

Merci et à bientôt!

M+

ML #653

Mark Metz
Monday Love Movement Calendar