LOL

Perhaps we need a prescription.

Okay, Rx - Laugh out loud. Repeat as needed. Use at least once daily.

Too many people walk around with long, sad faces that would make Eeyore look cheerful by comparison.

Whatever happened to the laughter that makes our life more pleasant and certainly gives us a much needed break from the reality that is crowding in on us at an alarmingly frequent pace?

I stopped by the nursing home to visit a friend yesterday, only to discover she was at an appointment with her medical team and wasnt' expected back until much later. But in the interim, as I was loping along through the endless maze of hallways, a tiny old woman in a wheelchair asked me to come close to her. I did so.

In a whispery voice, she told me a joke. It was cute. One of those things your kids brings home from school in about the 2nd grade. But I appreciated the emotion behind it. She found it funny and wanted to share the laughter. So we laughed together.

I was doing some research on the internet last night and came across a now defunct blog. There are no entries past late 2008. It's a shame, because I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe.

Then there is the book a friend just loaned me. In case you haven't snorted milk out of your nostrils lately, you are missing out on a good read. I laughed until the tears began to flow.

We have a lot in our lives that compels us to be serious. Things press upon us that need to be sorted through and responsibilities of all stripes are necessary to get the substance of life accomplished, gathered and used.

But without laughter, the ride is awfully dull.

The following comes from the defunct blog "dustbunnies" and is included in the interest of laughter. The article is entitled "PERSEID ESCAPADES" and is dated August 15, 2007.

To see this year's Perseid meteor shower, we loaded up the van and drove far from the city lights at 1 am. Most of the kids protested sleepily, but Rudolph the Wonder Dog was ready to go. Even if he did cower under hubby's legs while driving.

We stopped at a dark field and set up our camera equipment. Rudolph is a Weimeraner, which means "hunter of small furry animals and shoes" in German. So he disappeared into the brush while we peered up at the sky for meteors.

Ten minutes later, he was back, dragging a large stick. Rudolph dropped it at my feet.

I picked it up and tossed it back into the brush. He brought it back. Bored with stargazing, Heidi picked it up and started playing fetch with him.

Half an hour later, we called the shower a bust, and piled back into the van.

Back home, I started shuffling kids to bed. Rudolph dropped the stick at my feet, tail wagging.

It was a dried up deer leg.

Who knows what the neighbors were thinking, with all the lights on at our house at 2am, with a figure screaming through the house, "Dead deer leg! Dead deer leg!"

But really. They should be used to this sort of thing by now.