A Sense of Play

 laughter as a way of touching God
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Creative Commons: Unsplash

Laughter relieves tension, lowers stress hormones, improves neurochemistry, settles the heart, and boosts the immune system. So we learn from science.

Laughter is also a way of touching God. So we learn from open and relational (process) theology. There's a lightness in the universe, open and spacious, in its exploratory dimensions: an openness to novelty. And there's a lightness in God, in whose spacious heart the universe unfolds. The lightness of God and the lightness of the universe cannot be sharply separated. They belong together, because God is the adventure of the universe as an ongoing Life. 

To be sure, lightness is not the whole story. There's a tragic side of God, too. But the lightness is indeed part part of God. and if we lose sight of it, our lives become embattled with bitterness. Laughter is a pipeline to the lightness of the universe and the lightness of God. In addition, and importantly, laughter is fun. In the language of process philosophers, it is satisfying in its intensity, a form of rich experience.

Among the many qualities of heart and mind that make life valuable (see the slideshow on Process and Spirituality below), play is as essential as love. Without love there can be no play, and without play there can be no love. Laughter is a form of play, human and divine.

- Jay McDaniel

Girls Just Want to Have Fun
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Come on Baby, Let's Do the Twist

Process and Spirituality Presentation by Jared Morningstar

 Play as a Spiritual Practice
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Coyote. Nasrudin. St. Francis and his order of Jesters of the Lord. Zen masters. Taoist sages. Hasidic storytellers. Clowns and performance artists. Such prophets — and all the spiritual traditions have them — encourage us not to take ourselves too seriously. They say that what we know is not worth knowing, and what's worth knowing cannot be known through our ways. To our sensible selves, their actions seem silly, shameless, even shocking. But they have an important role in the spiritual life. They carry the banner for the spiritual practice of play.

Play is the exuberant expression of our being. It is at the heart of our creativity, our sexuality, and our most carefree moments of devotion. It helps us live with absurdity, paradox, and mystery. It feeds our joy and wonder. It keeps our search for meaning down to earth.
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Practice play by doing things on the spur of the moment. Take time out to experiment, to try on different parts, to relax. Laugh heartily at jokes, situations, and yourself. Remember, laughter heals body, mind, and soul, and by extension, communities.

- Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice

The Repair Shop
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Humor as a Way of Touching God

Imagine for a moment that the universe unfolds in a wider horizon of divine love, and that one aspect of this love is laughter. Not cruel laughter, not demeaning laughter, but simple, playful laughter: the kind may be evoked when you watch The Repair Shop, or Andy Kaufman doing an Elvis Impersonation, or Cyndy Lauper singing Girls Just Want to Have Fun, or Chubby Checker inviting you to do The Twist. 

In moments when we laugh, we are awakening to a lighter side of life. This lighter side does not eliminate tragedy or sadness, but it opens up space where the weight of sadness does not have the final word. There's something in the universe that is free and open, spontaneous and playful, healing and whole-making. This something, I suggest, is God. Humor is our way of touching God.

In the spiritual alphabet, humor can be found in many qualities of heart and mind, many letters. Humor is Playful, to be sure; but it is also Connection, because it brings us close to others; it is Joy, because it is fun; and it is Beauty because it is, well, beautiful. Humor can also be Nurturing, because humor opens up a space in the mind and heart for new ideas and feelings for new ideas to emerge. And it is Loving because, in some deep way, humor is a love of life.

It is unfortunate, then, that some forms of religion can be too serious, deeming "fun" as irrelevant to a life well-loved.  And needless to say, some forms of theology are humorless. There's no joy in them  They miss the place where faith meets laughter.

This doesn't mean that theology should address laughter as a serious subject. When laughter is taken too seriously, as a subject of theological inquiry, its lightness is lost. The greater need is not to take theology so seriously, and then to let laughter well up, of its own, in a natural way. There needs to be a place in life where religion and theology are set aside, and we simply laugh, sharing in our common humanity and the lighter side of life. In that place God is present.

​- Jay McDaniel

Andy Kaufman's Elvis Impression

Laughter in My Heart
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By Meenu Ravi for the KidSpirit Exploring Humor Issue

Laughter is the world’s most common language. I can’t imagine life without laughter. It’s like cake without the yummy frosting.

I think of humor as a sister to love, because when someone is laughing, it seems they beam. When I’m laughing, the air smells sweeter to me, the colors around me are more vivid, nothing else seems to matter much at that moment.

We’re given the power of laughter, not only to laugh AT things, but to laugh things OFF. We’ll always overcome difficulties, but the happy person learns how to laugh most of them off. We must laugh and be merry. Remember: boost the world with a song. Boost the world with a laugh, or perhaps a giggle. Laugh, for the time is brief and we must savor it. Laugh and be proud to belong to the world of humor.

Humor is catching. The music of roaring laughter is far less contagious than any cough, sniffle, or sneeze. When laughter is shared, it bonds people of all cultures together and happiness forms. This priceless medicine is fun, free, and easy to use. Your sense of humor is one of the most powerful tools you have to make certain that your daily mood will to take care of itself. Laughter makes you feel confident. The good feeling that you get when you laugh remains with you even after the laughter ceases. Even in the most difficult of times, a laugh — or even simply a smile — can go a long way toward making you feel better.

As laughter and humor become tied to your life, your creativity will bloom and new discoveries for playing with friends and loved ones will occur to you daily. Humor takes you to a higher place where you can view the world from a more relaxed, positive, creative, joyful, perspective. A laugh costs nothing, but creates much. It enhances those who receive, without failing those who give. It happens in a blink and the memory of it lasts forever.

God made Heaven and Earth for joy. Made them, and filled them full of laughter. The splendid joy of the stars sing in the language everyone can make out, the language of Laughter. So we must laugh and drink from the deep turquoise cup of the sky, join the exultant song of the humorous stars giggling by, laughing in the blue-green land of Earth. Laughter creates a dent of happiness in life.

When she wrote this piece, Meenu Ravi was 13 years old. She is from Boston, Massachusetts, and enjoys gymnastics, art, writing poems about nature, and being outdoors.

​Dalai Lama Humor
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Lightening Up
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​Couldn't we just relax and lighten up? When we wake up in the morning, we can dedicate our day to learning how to do this. We can cultivate a sense of humor and practice giving ourselves a break. Every time we sit down to meditate, we can think of it as training to lighten up, to have a sense of humor, to relax. As one student said, "Lower your standards and relax as it is."

— Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart