Laughter is good for the soul

When was the last time you laughed really hard? The kind of laughter that brings tears to your eyes and makes it hard to breathe. Prior to tonight it had been awhile - since probably at my family reunion in June, and I'm pretty sure that was at how my sister laughs when it gets out of control. I realize that may not sound very funny, trust me, you just had to be there...plus yeah, we're kind of wierd. Not that I haven't laughed since then...I have, just not that uncontrollable kind of laughing.

We went to see Tim Hawkins in Kissimmee earlier this evening. If you haven't heard of him, do a YouTube search, especially if you need a good laugh or two. We already knew we liked him, but figured we'd probably already have heard most of his song parodies and comedy material, thanks to YouTube. However, even if we'd already heard the whole show, it would have been worth going. But we were pleasantly surprised that it was almost all new, and just as funny - I literally laughed until I cried a couple times. Not to mention he's a fantastic guitarist and good singer who writes some pretty great parody songs. It was a great show and the 90 minutes went by way too fast.

On the way home, it was interesting to hear the kids' comments about the show. They didn't get some of it, since he talked about music from the 80's, cassette tapes, and other things that you would have to be our age to really know about. Some of it they found hilarious, like his descriptions of generic food vs. name brand and Halloween candy. And my animal loving oldest daughter even found opportunity to take offense to a parody song that mentioned a dog on fire, which I knew was going to happen the second I heard it...I'm pretty sure it ruined the rest of the show for her and colored her opinion of him forever. But overall, they liked it and want to go again, but from their perspective, I can see how it's really true that jokes aren't nearly as funny if you have to have them explained to you.

It felt good to laugh like that, so I would encourage you, if you haven't laughed really hard in awhile, to find a funny book, video, TV show or comedy show and take some time to do so. You'll be glad you did.