A cat died and went to heaven. God told him he’d been a good cat and asked what he could do to make him happy. The cat said he’d been in a poor family and had always slept on the floor. His idea of heaven was a big soft pillow. In the blink of an eye, he had the perfect pillow and was stretched out comfortably on it, purring away.
Sometime later, some mice showed up after a tragic farming accident. God told them they’d been good mice and asked what he could do for them. They said they’d always had to run everywhere and would love to have roller skates. In the blink of an eye they all had little skates and went zooming away.
One day soon God came across the cat and asked if he was happy. “Oh, yes,” the cat replied. “I love the pillow. And by the way, those meals on wheels are fantastic.”
This joke is courtesy of Fred Turner, a Danville man who believes we all need to laugh more. Fred, 48, has been bringing laughter to his older relatives for years, starting with his great-grandmother and grandparents. Now he’s down to one 89-year-old grandmother, in an assisted living facility in Nashville, and every day he sends her a postcard with a joke written on it. He has been pleasantly surprised to learn how this spreads laughter: His grandmother reports she is famous throughout the facility for the postcards, plus his mail carrier told him everyone at the post office looks forward to the jokes.
Fred moved here 20 years ago and worked in Internet technology. After the crash a few years back, he and his wife took some time off and she opened the Bath Studio in San Ramon. He entered the residential real estate business, which he said he finds fascinating since he loves people and loves the San Ramon Valley. Now he wants to help people laugh.
He said there are some 5,000 Laugh Clubs around the world, which originated with a Laughter Yoga movement in India after a doctor noticed laughter helps with aches, pains and depression. Fred couldn’t find a club in this area so he decided to start one himself. He was afraid the word “yoga” would make it sound harder than it is so he opted to call it a Laugh Club. But that doesn’t mean the members won’t learn some Yoga Laughs, such as the Lion, the Argument and the Cell Phone. With the Lion Laugh, you stick your tongue out, make claws and try to laugh while doing that. It exercises the diaphragm, Fred explained. For the Argument Laugh, you wag your finger; with the Cell Phone Laugh you pretend to be talking on the phone and laughing.
The next meeting of Fred’s fledgling Laugh Club will be at 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 7, at the San Ramon Senior Center, 9300 Alcosta Blvd. He said first he will talk about the health benefits of laughter. Then to get started he has jokes printed on cards for folks to read. He said they will also find things to laugh at in their everyday lives and they will learn to laugh for no reason. Another club exercise is to split into two groups and laugh at and with each other. There are all kinds of possibilities, Fred said, and he can’t wait to get started.
This concept of laughter being good medicine isn’t new but in March the University of Maryland School of Medicine linked laughter to the healthy function of blood vessels for the first time. After comparing humor responses of 300 people, they found those who laughed less were the ones with heart disease. Laughter appears to cause the inner lining of blood vessels to expand in order to increase blood flow. They urge patients to incorporate laughter into their daily activities just as they do other heart-healthy activities, such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator. A humor therapist at the university noted that when a person laughs heartily every organ gets massaged including the heart, lungs and digestive systems. Also laughter releases endorphins that make a person feel elated.
To learn more about the Laugh Club, contact Fred Turner at 216-4590. And speaking of heaven:
A very good man died and went to heaven and he asked God what the people in hell get to eat. God allowed him to take a look and he saw everyone feasting on gourmet seven-course meals. “Why do they eat so well in hell and we only get peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in heaven?” he asked. “Because,” God told him, “it just doesn’t pay to cook for two.”
