GOOD CHEER GALORE

[schlomo]

Good Cheer Galore

I enjoy watching TV dramas. I have noticed that every time someone describes a potential mate, that person is routinely characterized, among other attributes, as funny. From my experience at least, as a child and as an adult whose default was being serious and working constructively, very few people (acquaintances, family, and friends) have been even remotely funny.

Now in Hawaii, however, my wife and I have become attached to a couple of women whose conversation is consistently hilarious. I cherish their company so much that I have invited them to join my wife and me for our 56th wedding anniversary. It will be a hoot! I am not just a spectator. Although it is not my nature, I spontaneously laugh along with them. And I need all of the good cheer that comes my way, considering that I tend to be too sober-minded.

Research indicates that laughter enhances one’s life and one’s life span. I am a believer. It took me only 80 years to do so.

Letting go of my intellect in the presence of uproariously funny people always gives me a psychological boost, an antidote to being too often mired in melancholy.

Joyful Observation

Yesterday in our car, my wife used her Bluetooth device to play some melodic cantorial chanting. At a red-light stop on the outskirts of Waikiki, I noticed a nondescript man in a vehicle next to ours. He was moving his upper body as if in sync with the Hebrew music that I found so entrancing. At first glance, the man’s rhythmic bobbing up and down reminded me of the ritual of a devout Jew who would reverently mumble to himself while praying (davening) whether it be in a synagogue or on public transportation.

Of course the man in the car might have been moving his body for a variety of reasons unrelated to the music enhanced by my Bose speakers. Nonetheless, I’d like to make him an honorary member of the tribe. Serendipity is alive and well in Waikiki.