ON A RECENT FLIGHT, a young baby effortlessly made me and everyone within earshot laugh by chortling with such spontaneity, abandon, and sheer irrepressible joy that no one could resist joining him in his innocent laughter. And just when it seemed he had at last stopped chuckling and crowing, he would burst out laughing once more and set us all off again!
It was as if the baby had been asked to find a benign way to relax and unite the passengers within a half-hour of takeoff—and he pulled it off with huge success. Whatever frustrations we had previously experienced with full planes, flight delays, and time-consuming security checks all faded into insignificance in the light of one child's unrestrained merriment.
Our shared joy neutralized the irritation and boredom many of us felt. We found we simply couldn't indulge in annoyance or apathy and at the same time be happy and lighthearted. They were opposite states of thought. The very laughter and delight that permeated the cabin showed the inability of negative thinking to overpower our innate contentment and pull us down. It illustrated that humor can often be the first step in a shift of viewpoint from the disturbing toward the inspired, because humor lightens the heart, softens the hardships of life, and relieves and refreshes us in the process.
