Laugh

So one of the books we got at the library is about a porcupine named Fluffy.  Fluffy tries and tries to live up to his soft, cozy name, but he just keeps poking everybody's eye out.  It completely bums him out.  Then one day he meets a grumpy rhinoceros who asks him his name.  He tells the rhinoceros his name is Fluffy.  First the rhinoceros smiles.  Then he giggles.  And then he starts dying laughing at the terrific irony. 

When I read the story, in order to convey the author's meaning, I have to make myself giggle and laugh when it says the rhinoceros giggles and laughs.  At first I have to kind of force it out.  But then one of the kids will start giggling along.  And since one laugh grows on another, I start to get a bit of the genuine laugh in me.  Then another kid catches onto that authenticity and starts giggling too.  And then I get the ha-ha's real good and all the kids are laughing and we're all in a book-reading pile on the floor hootin' and hollerin' about absolutely nothing.

It's fantastic.

I'd like to jam a post-it note into my brain that says, "When confronted by a frustrated, angry, unhappy altogether ticked-off person when feeling frustrated, angry, unhappy and altogether ticked-off yourself, laugh.  Laugh until it's real.  Then it will all turn out right in the end...or everybody will think you're crazy.  But maybe it will turn out right in the end.  So give it a try." 

That is what I'd like to do.