laughter

Geezer jokes abound. One of the ways to deal with so-called losses is to laugh about them. Inability to remember why one came into a room, the obvious pull of gravity on one's flesh, one's changing sex life, the lack of bodily response to muscular commands are all a potential focus of laughter.

A Navajo friend grew up in the high plateaus of the Navajo Nation with no electricity and no light at night other than the stars and moon. Both imagined and real things to be feared roamed in the dark. These monsters needed disempowerment. So every night they would go outside in the dark and laugh. Even a molecule of laughter inside a monster renders it impotent, he said.

So laugh, you geezers, laugh! The monsters of sickness and loss, of grief at the loss of one's friends and companions, of ancient regrets, of fears of the dying process have no power when the heart is radiant with laughter.

Laughter is a solution, a soluble, a solvent. Laughter is solvation.