What makes you laugh? James was looking at the strangest thing on his laptop. I didnt think there was such a thing. It was an African stand-up comedian and he was speaking and singing in Swahili. He was standing before an audience and they were all laughing - loudly. James was laughing - hysterically. I began to write this blog and I asked James what made the Tanzanian laugh? He told me that he had to think about it. He would tell me tomorrow. In 1989, I made my first trip to Tanzania. I was told, Do not try to be funny. Tanzanians will not understand what is funny to you. Yet, the best thing about a Tanzanian is a smile, his laughter, his bright happy eyes. What causes the smile, the laughter, the bright happy eyes? Five year old Ezra said in Swahili, Im not going back to school (after one day) because the teacher wont let me talk He was very serious, but his entire family laughed. Funny is what produces laughter. and Tanzanians are funny, yet humor is not at someone elses expense. Funny behavior. Funny words. Funny actions. Quite often, innocent. No sarcasm, because it can be harmful and indirect. Laughter is the result of sensing something as funny. Naturally humorous. Dances With Wolves, a movie about the American Indian depicted the telling and retelling of a buffalo story and it was humorous for a long time to the Indian. What to many would lose its humor after the fifth telling was as funny to the Indian the tenth time the story was told as it was the first time it was told. Who says, defines, regulates, decides what is funny? Only the person who hears and responds with laughter to a word or a happening. No one is the ultimate decider of what is funny. There is a part of a persons nature, a funny bone, a place where what is funny stimulates, causing a smile, a laugh, the face to lighten up. No one can say, This is funny. Laugh!It is an unspoken reality that resides inside a human being and it stimulates a happy response, a smile, a laugh, an unspoken pleasure. I heed the advice, given to me 25 years ago, but God has rewarded me with the Tanzanian smile and laugh.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 19:44:07 +0000
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