Is Humour the Best Medicine?

 The study presented was able to show that there is a positive link between humour and a buffer against post-traumatic stress disorder in firefighters. My mother’s life changed dramatically when she fell ill with Multiple Sclerosis. She went through years not knowing why she had problems with movements and tiredness, and sometime later I was born into a family trying to manage with her fading away bit by bit. For us, nothing was normal, each day could be very different, and on many of them we struggled. But my mother had the most funny and beautiful laughter. Her laughter would explode suddenly and loudly, she’d laugh until she ran out of breath and then she inhaled with a loud shriek, gasping for air to set off into another round of laughter. It was contagious. It was awkward. It was healing! My mother’s humour was fantastic. She came up with tricks and shenanigans to tease our neighbours, with jokes to dry my tears, and most impressively she could laugh about herself and her disease when everyone just felt like crumbling. Unfortunately, humour and laughter cannot heal MS. But it kept us together as a family, kept us whole, kept us sane.

Engel pflücken sich dein Lächeln

Und schenken es den Kindern.

Die spielen Sonne damit
Ja ...

(Else-Lasker Schüler)