Laugh out Loud – Life is Better with Laughter

“A Day without Laughter is a Day wasted!” – Charlie Chaplin

Do you remember when you had a real hearty laugh, with friends, family or colleagues? Pulled a prank on someone, without the guilt of wasting time or being scorned later. Or read a satirical piece of writing without getting offended or judgemental about it.

I grew up in the time when ‘intolerance‘ was just a dictionary word. Friends made fun of each other, blatantly and shamelessly, but no one named it as ‘bullying‘. Santa-Banta jokes or other such memes were neither racist nor demeaning. In fact, those were the best ice-breaker jokes and part of every family dinners or gathering. No one ever felt de-meaned nor any group pledged to take legal action back then.

However, the scene is changed drastically today. We are neither social nor tolerant now, even a small laughter makes us fidgety. A simple hello from a stranger, makes us feel uncomfortable! Have you ever wondered why?

Laughter Clubs or a Real Hearty Laugh!

Just a couple of days back I was reading this message thread on an ‘Online Mom Community‘. A lady had forwarded a joke/ prank, something like – when you click the given link, it takes you to a new window showing your profile back at you with a message. The message read like “You have duped that lady with ‘x’ amount of money.”

It was a simple prank and had been forwarded many times on social networking channels. Plus anyone having the slightest sense could catch the trick of being fooled. But all hell went loose on that poor woman for forwarding this prank. She spent her entire day in explaining to all those women that this is just a prank and apologizing. The replies she received were outright hateful, some even derogatory. One lady (highly educated with a very reputable job) even passed the judgment – ‘you should be hanged for this stupid prank‘. I wonder why?

We enroll in expensive laughter therapy, laughter yoga sessions or join laughter clubs to de-stress our life but a hearty laugh make us feel awkward.

Laughter is contagious –

Yes, laughter is contagious and it spreads like wildfire. Bring laughter in your life, laugh out loud. Our children are looking up to us for every lesson. Teach them to stay happy and smile in every situation. With a positive attitude, half the problem gets resolved itself.

‘There is NO path to Happiness; Happiness is the PATH.’ – Buddha

Empathy, Compassion, Sensibility, and Love are the pillars of social structure. You move one, the whole building starts getting life-threatening cracks. With a little displacement of the second pillar whole structure collapses. Our kids are following the same footprints, they do not laugh at jokes, stay aloof, and lack empathy. I keep telling my husband and friends how this young generation really needs social-behavior grooming. When I see teenage kids, they seriously lack social etiquette and empathy.

Just the other day a pregnant lady was waiting for a rickshaw to reach her home. She was clearly troubled by her weight, heat, and of course the inconvenience of the public transport system. After a long wait when a rickshaw approached, suddenly a young kid came from other side and hopped on it. On being asked to vacate for the expecting lady, her answer was a shocker for me – ‘is this the only rickshaw in the entire city?‘ And whole life my mom taught me to respect elders, show compassion, be kind.

This is not just one of its kind incident, there are many that we encounter every day on social media. Young kids with a strong ‘I, Me, and Myself’ approach. Where we as parents going wrong to bring such disconnect in young hearts and minds?

Catch them Young and Teach Values

As I mentioned earlier in my posts, I have born and bred in a full house party – a joint family with granny, grandpa, uncle, aunt, and cousins. Our grandparents were always on the roll to teach us values, social behavior, etiquette, morals, and point out where we went wrong. Today, most of us are in a nuclear setup and due to the extra burden of duties somethings are bound to get neglected. However, we have to re-think and introspect about the duties that are getting neglected. After all, it is our responsibility to bring better human beings, isn’t it?

Empathy, compassion, love, and laughter these things are inter-related and should include in child’s upbringing. Basic Golden Words – Thank You, Sorry, May I, Please, Excuse me are just not empty words. These are emotions, values which need to be imbibed in the younger generation’s heart and mind.

All we need is a little real LOL in life, and this is just not a short form of laugh out loud or a response to social media forwarded messages. So next time when you read a joke have a real LOL or ROFL moment share it with others too. Spread cheer, happiness and yes Laugh out Loud everyone!!

This post is written for #BlogchatterA2Z series by Blogchatter, and my theme for this challenge is Gleeful Parenting. Previously from the series –

J for Jumble Bumble.

K for Kind Attention.

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