I love when something humorous takes us beyond ourselves for a moment and at once returns us more fully to ourselves. From the belly laugh that relaxes to a nod of insight, an element of the holy fills the gift of this interlude.
One of our web team said that we must have a place for postings that nurture the funny bone. I, by far the most serious of this gentle trio, need a philosophy of laughter. Today’s issue of The Christian Century (November 14, 2006, 
provides such a philosophy. So here is Jean Keskulla’s graceful poem:
Laughter
When I’m reading a joke out loud
from a new joke book, I hear
my voice start to falter, from laughter,
almost to weep, from laughter,
the way my sister’s voice did as a child
or a woman, especially if somebody
made a bathroom joke; and my father’s
voice did, when he wasn’t just poking
fun at someone, when he found
something really funny; slapstick
got him laughing that way, sometimes.
A laughter beyond words, maybe
beyond grief. As I hear myself
laughing like them, with them,
I say: a laughter beyond death.
“Laughter” - Copyright 2006 Christian Century. Reproduced by permission from the November 14, 2006 issue of the Christian Century.
Dee Brauninger, Web Minister
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