Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCXLVII

I was laughing so hard that my side was hurting, I had tears in my eyes, and I was having some mildly violent coughing spells...all brought about by my laughter. I was on one of my many business trips to Las Vegas, and someone had given me some tickets to a Jay Leno performance while I was there, and it was during his show that I was getting so tickled. But it wasn't just me. It was a sell-out crowd, and everyone in the building was reacting the same way I was. For an hour and forty-five minutes, he stood up there and told joke after joke, and the response he was getting was overwhelming. After it was over and I was back in my hotel room, I started thinking about the evening, and I began wondering what it would have been like if I had been the only one to show up at his performance. What if it was just me sitting there on the front row of the auditorium, and he put on the exact same show? Would I have laughed as much and as hard as I did when the place was packed? I don't think so. What if I was alone in my hotel room and I watched him put on the same show on television? I would have enjoyed it, and I may have even chuckled a few times, but there's something about being a part of the crowd that makes us open up our emotions a little more.

Here's something else I've noticed: I've been sitting in church when the preacher says something funny and everyone in the building will laugh at what he says, but we don't just laugh...we look around at each other while we're laughing. Have you ever noticed that? Why do we do that? I'm sure there have been numerous studies on that subject, so maybe I should look into it and find out. I'm not sure why we do it, I just know that we do. Do we become more emotional when we're with other people?

Let me give you another example from the complete opposite end of the spectrum. I was in a hotel room in Texarkana, Arkansas when my cell phone rang shortly after four in the morning. It was my brother, Stan, and he was calling to tell me that our brother, Roland, had just passed away. I was devastated. I got up and showered, ate a quick bite of breakfast, and headed home. Sometime in mid-afternoon, I sat down at my computer and began writing a "Thinking Out Loud" blog about him. Up to that point, I had spent the entire day alone, and although my heart was crushed, I had not yet shed a single tear. I was sitting at the computer, staring at the screen, almost done with my writing, when Angie arrived home from work. When she walked into my office where I was, I broke down and began to sob. There was just something about having her there with me that made me open up and release the emotions that were bottled up inside me. Have you ever attended a wake, and when you approach a member of the family of the deceased, they will begin to cry when you greet them? You shouldn't feel bad about that, because that person has just demonstrated that you're someone that can help them express their grief in their time of emotional distress.

One other observation: I've also noticed when someone snaps and starts shooting people for no apparent reason, let's say at a school, one thing that we usually hear about that person is that he was a loner. I'm not a psychologist, but I have to wonder if people who don't have other people in their lives with whom they can release their emotions may be more likely to lose it and start doing crazy things that most people would never dream of doing. It sounds logical and entirely possible.

I am so blessed. I have so many friends and family members to share life with...to laugh with, to cry with...people who, when I'm around them, I can let go and just be myself. Not only can I be myself in their presence, but they're also the people who help to make me what I am and what I desire to become. So, just who are these people? Well, one of them is you! Because you're who you are, I can be who I am. Yes, I thank God for you!!

Preston