The humor in our eyes: How laughter heals more than vision

By Paul Graves | FāVS News Columnist

First, a quick physiology lesson. Our eyes depend on humor (2 humors, actually) for healthy sight.

The aqueous humor is a water-like liquid in front of the lens. The vitreous humor is a gel-like substance behind the lens and in front of the retina. Together, they maintain eye pressure and the shape of the eyeball. The vitreous humor feeds nutrients to our eyes and sticks to the retina in the back of the eye. The retina communicates with our brains so we can actually see. 

One day I mentioned to my optometrist that the eye humors serve another function. 

“What’s that?” he asked. 

“They help us see the humor in life!” I answered.

Grinning, he said, “I never thought of that.”

Laughter as spiritual medicine

When was the last time you laughed in order to cope with some personal or social situation? 10 minutes ago? Today? Yesterday? Laughter can be a most effective coping medicine. In that way, laughter is an important spirituality tool. In many cultures, it always has been.

The Navajo culture, for example, celebrates the First Laugh Ceremony, “A‘wee Chi’deedloh.” To the Navajo, a baby’s first laugh is seen as a sign that the baby is ready to bring her spiritual existence into her loving family and community. This happy ritual is a mark of respect for the family the baby is born into, and it affirms the baby’s transition from the spiritual world to the physical world.

Ros Ben-Moshe speaks of this ritual — and many other insights into the world of laughter and humor — in her essay, “A Global History of Laughter” on the “Jewish Women of Words” website. She’s also a sought-after teacher on laughter.

I like what she understands as the universal experience of laughter: “We witness laughter and smiling from the earliest stages of our development. We ‘ha ha’ before we ‘da da’ or ‘ma ma.’ No matter what your background, age or where you’re situated in the world, we all smile and laugh in the same language.”

But sometimes our laughter is less joyful medicine, and more medicine that helps us cope with life-pain. Have you heard of “Go-away-closer humor”? If you’ve been around me, you have, because that’s my term for humor that helps us deal with life. We use humor to push pain away (“go-away”), but to also bring pain “closer” to us to show it can’t hurt us anymore. Coping involves healthy — or toxic — humor.

For example, the June 14 “No Kings” protests were filled with many signs of “Go-away-closer” humor. Some of the humor was very crude. Some was clever. To me, all protest humor seemed to be efforts to deal with the fears and angers that drew millions to protest Trump administration policies and actions.

In many writings, Richard Rohr has declared that “All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain … How can we be sure not to transmit our pain onto others?” I think that fits particularly with unhealthy “go-away” humor — the humor we use to transmit our pain to others.

I’m sure much of the June 14 protest humor in America was meant to project the pain, fear and anger of so many people onto others they blame. I understand that.

But I also understand we can use humor to transform our own pain, rather than transmit it onto others. Go-away-closer humor can be used either to transmit our pain or transform our pain.

I’d like to visit with my eye doctor again about the humors in our eyes. I’d suggest we participate in a First Laugh Ceremony. There, we may learn something about how a baby humorously sees someone who makes him laugh. I’m sure his laughter is a God-thing!

The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. FāVS News values diverse perspectives and thoughtful analysis on matters of faith and spirituality.

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