Laughter can help us in our troubles. King Solomon wrote there is “A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” “A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.” “A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.” (Ecclesiastes 3:4; Proverbs 15:13; Proverbs 17:22).
Some people believe maintaining a sense of humor helped some survivors through the Holocaust. Chaya Ostrower discovered while interviewing 84 Holocaust survivors for her doctoral thesis that “humor in the Holocaust fulfilled all the functions of humor, but especially that of Defense Mechanism, including its sub types — Self-humor and Gallows humor.” One survivor interviewed for the study said, “the reason I survived…was laughter and humor….” Another survivor said, “Humor was one of the integral ingredients of mental perseverance. …it was very important, very important. Humor and satire played a tremendous role, in my opinion.”
One time I was telling a friend about a horrible experience I had been through and was still going through. She said, “Well I’m glad you are able to laugh about it.” I had not even realized I was laughing. Even though the experience was causing me tremendous pain, I ...
