Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Why We Laugh, and Why We Need to Keep on Laughing

Who would ever guess that learning to appreciate laughter is one of the ways we can achieve wisdom? Well, Rabbi Noah Weinberg is one of the wisest men I’ve ever known. He founded one of the most influential Jewish studies programs for the unaffiliated more than 25 years ago, which are now spread out worldwide.  Rabbi Weinberg laces his life lessons with occasional jokes and ready smiles, and I wanted to share an article of his with you about the power of laughter and what our laughter says about us.

I hope you enjoy the article Laughter Is Serious Business.  You’ll get happy and a little wiser at the same time!

Posted by judy @ 09:53 AM • (0) Comments  

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Notes From An Accidental Humorist

When an editor at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner called to tell me she was buying my essay, “Fear of Fat: Don’t Let It Make You Skinny,” I didn’t try to act cool – I shouted “Yippee!” right into the phone. I was only 22 years old, and this was my first freelance sale. Not only had I earned fifty whole bucks (in the mid-1980s, this was only paltry, but not laughable), I had broken into the newspaper business, or so I thought. What was really happening was quite different, though I wouldn’t realize it for years.

Read the rest of this blog entry on MamaNeedsABookContract.com

Posted by judy @ 08:58 AM • (2) Comments  

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

"Young@Heart" Will Make You Want to Sing

I bet you’ve never seen the amazing sight of a couple of dozen senior citizens belting out Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancin’ in the Dark” to a truly captive audience: inmates at the local county jail. That scene is just of the many ones that will have you laughing and sometimes crying in the new documentary “Young@Heart,” which I happened to discover today to my total delight.

Young@Heart is the name of a chorus started in 1982 in Northampton, Massachusetts, led by Bob Cilman, at least 30 years their junior. The chorus members’ average age is 80. Men and women, black and white, the troupe members have one vital thing in common: a zest for life that propels them to want to learn songs such as Sonic Youth’s “Schizophrenia,” even though the songs inscribed in their hearts are more likely to be from “The King and I” or “The Sound of Music.” The movie documents their preparation over seven weeks for a new show, and we see them struggle to get the words and rhythm of James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good),” and Coldplay’s “Fix You, “ among others, a challenge they gamely meet, even when one chorus member needs gigantic magnifying glasses to see the words.

This movie reminds us of how vital it is for everyone to keep a sense of purpose, and willingness to learn new things even after heart attacks, cancer, and other ravages of aging have taken their toll. This group loves to sing, and their work in the chorus keeps them living to the fullest. As one of the funniest members of the group, Fred, quips, “We sang on every continent until I became incontinent.” Another man in the group, asked how low he can sing, zings back, “Depends on loose my shorts are.”

The movie is poignant: not all the members of the chorus will make it to the final show, where 92-year old Eileen Hall, cane in hand, sings a moving rendition of the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go?,” bringing the house down with thunderous applause.  These folks aren’t afraid of death: they are afraid of being dead while still living, which would be their fate if they gave into the dullness and inactivity that their years could invite. These old rockers will have none of it. As one of the prison guards notes after they finish singing Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young” at the Hampshire Jail, “Lotta spirit in these folks.”

Check out the movie trailer here. If you’re not smiling and singing by the end of it, well then, you really need to see the movie! 

Posted by judy @ 06:25 PM • (2) Comments  

Monday, May 12, 2008

In Tribute to a Woman Who Saved 2,500 Lives

I only have one quibble with the ending line of the AP story that recalls the life of Irena Sendler, who died today at age 98. Sendler heroically smuggled out approximately 2,500 Jewish babies and children in Poland during World War II, repeatedly risking her life, and then risking it again when the Nazis finally discovered her and tortured her in prison, trying to get her to reveal the names of those children—names she had carefully hidden. The AP story ends this way: “Sendler is survived by her daughter and a granddaughter.”

No, Sendler is survived not only by that daughter and granddaughter, but also by the 2,500 children she saved, and the unknowable number of children and grandchildren they brought to life. These souls, too, must be credited to Irena Sendler. This woman lived according to the philosophy her father taught her, that “people can be only divided into good or bad; their race, religion, nationality don’t matter.”

Rest in peace, Irena Sendler. And thank you for your bravery. 

Posted by judy @ 05:22 PM • (0) Comments  

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

In Honor of Very Good Looking, Darn Smart Woman's Day

This email has made the rounds, but it always makes me smile when I get it, so I’m posting it here. Other than the quotes attributed at the bottom, I don’t know whom to credit for it. Enjoy it!

Happy IVGLDSW Day! Today is International Very Good Looking, Darn Smart Woman’s Day , so please send this message to someone you think fits this description. Please do not send it back to me as I have already received it from a Very Good Looking, Darn Smart Woman!  Remember this motto to
live by: Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractiv e and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally wo rn out and screaming ‘WOO HOO what a ride!’

To the Girls !!

Inside every older person is a younger person—wondering what the heck happened. - Cora Harvey Armstrong

Inside me lives a skinny woman crying to get out. But I can usually shut her up with cookies. (Unknown)

The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy.  --Helen Hayes (at 73)

I refuse to think of them as chin hairs. I think of them as stray eyebrows.  --Janette Barber

My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first one being—hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint. —Erma Bombeck

Old age ain’t no place for sissies.  --Bette Davis

Thirty-five is when you finally get your head together and your body starts falling apart.—Caryn Leschen

If you can’t be a good example—then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning. (Unknown)

Behind every successful man is a surprised woman.—Maryon Pearson

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission. --Eleanor Roosevelt

Posted by judy @ 07:04 PM • (0) Comments  
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