Our youngest daughter is living at home while her husband
finishes his medical residency. One of the many blessings of this old-fashioned
arrangement (several generations under one roof) is that we have two babies to
pass around. The youngest is just 5 months old. She doesn't have much to say
yet, but she has quite a good sense of humor. If you smile at her, she will
smile back, and she means it.
I am reminded of her aunt, our third child. When she was 10 months
old, she had a great belly laugh. I would tickle her just to get her going, and
then call my parents on the phone so they could join in the mirth.
There's something really interesting going on here. When we hear
this sort of laughter, we aren't just pleased that our babies have taken a
developmental step, as we might be if one rolled over or ate her beans. When we
get the 5-month-old to smile, when the 10-month-old makes us laugh, we are
doing something together. Laughter is a social practice that even infants
incapable of speech can share with us, and they really seem to enjoy doing it.
It's not just that, either. Laughter is infectious. When your
10-month-old is stacking blocks, you might or might not care to participate.
When she laughs uncontrollably, you can't help joining in.
Why is that? A neurophysiologist might say it's because social
laughter causes the release of endogenous opioids in specific brain regions,
and these endorphins are what make us laugh. An internist might say laughing
reduces the level of certain stress hormones and stimulates your cardiovascular
system, so it's a good way for the body to take care of itself. An
anthropologist might say we laugh when others do because it helps us form bonds
that link us together in a social network.
But these observations, even if true, leave us wanting some
further explanation. Why does hearing a baby laugh trigger the release of
endorphins? What is the evolutionary advantage to me in forming a social
network with a 10-month-old?
Perhaps, if we dig all the way down, we will find a deeper but
simpler truth. Think about the most fundamental human urges — hunger, thirst,
sex, the drive to succeed. They all have three things in common.
First, they arise in us unbidden. Second, we take great pleasure
from satisfying them. And third, they are connected to the very stuff of life.
If we don't satisfy them, we (and the human race) will waste away. At bottom,
we are strings that vibrate in harmony with being.
Maybe laughter is like these things. The impulse is certainly
hard to resist. (In fact, there is evidence that you might have problems if you
don't find it contagious.) And there is no greater joy in life than
uncontrolled laughter. Perhaps the joy that laughter celebrates, like the other
things we naturally yearn for, is intrinsic to the nature of things.
After all, God has a sense of humor. He inspired the writers of
the Bible to include a few famous jokes, from the mouths (for example) of the
prophet Elijah and the man born blind in the ninth chapter of John.
God made us in his image and likeness, and humor subsequently
became an important part of every human culture on earth. Our laughing
granddaughter is only the most immediate reminder of the joy we are meant for.
Garvey is president of The Catholic University of America
in Washington.