laughter

Eli's not quite ready to take his show on the road, but he has started making up his own jokes. He hears us tell a joke like,
"What did the baseball mitt say to the baseball?"
"I don't know, what?"
"Catch ya' later!"

We all laugh...we like those kinds of jokes. After a few minutes Eli will come up with one like this one:
"What did the BB gun say to the BB?"
"I don't know, what?"
"I'm gonna shoot you out of there!"

We all laugh. One of his favorites that I tell often is,
"What did the hot-dog say when it crossed the finish line?"
"I don't know, what?"
"I'm the wiener! I'm the wiener!"

That one is best told with an overabundance of enthusiasm, victory fists lifted high in the air.

Eli's sense of humor is really budding. He laughs at things in movies, and a couple of times we've really gotten into a good, deep laugh that's hard to quit, laughter begetting laughter. Every time we start laughing like that, I think, "We should laugh more often!"I can remember a handful of full-on laugh-til-you-cry sessions with friends and family over the years that aren't worth trying to convey. When I laugh with Eli they become present. I remember with a smile how important all those relationships are, and how important it is to laugh. How healing laughter can be. How it makes you breath deeply and even get hyper ventilated.

I often cry when I laugh, not in a weepy way, but tears just start leaking out of my eyes when I really get going. It doesn't make sense. I'm completely happy, with tears clouding my vision. All of it together makes me feel clean, cleansed.


Here's a joke I made up (all by myself.) I think I made it up for some skit at Camp Allen.
"What did the hurricane say to the land?"
"I don't know, what?"
"I got my eye on you."