Healing Remedy

A series of undeniable facts:

1. Laughter is inherently a physiological reaction to humor.
2. I was told that when I was a baby and was taken to get my first shot, I shed no tears.
3. Evolution does not equivalate to progress. 
4. Due to overwhelming pressure and persistence from the brain, the body conducts two distinct activities simultaneously  – i.) a set of bodily movement and ii.) the production of a sound. 
5. I’m sure that sitting in a doctor’s office, staring into an unfamiliar face, while a needle was plunged into my skin felt uncomfortable. Yet I am told I sat patiently and waited for the experience to be over. Even as a child, I realized the necessity of swallowing my pain, holding my tongue, and remaining silent.
6. As determined by modern evolutionary theory, upon change in an environment less advanced animals will sometimes outlive their more advanced counterparts.
7. Intense situations of laughter can lead to the activation of the tear ducts. As the mouth swings open and shut, desperately struggling to grasp onto a tiny bit of oxygen, the face turns a deep shade of red as damp trails travel down the cheeks. At this time, the escape of sound ranges from tinkling giggles to obnoxious barks.
8. On my fifth birthday, when I invited my whole class to Chuck E. Cheese and only one kid showed up, I clutched the disappointment tight to my chest. Like the pacifiers I couldn’t be without as a child, I tossed it into the dark space between the backseat and the trunk of our car. It was like second nature to fling my disdain over my shoulder, leaving it to be dug up and inspected by curious hands many years later.
9. Evolution is seldom depicted in a linear chart from one species to another. It stands more as the base of a tree that gives way to many different branches. Some of these paths lead to even more, while others fall dead.
10. Humor researcher, Peter Derks, describes laughter response as “a really quick, automatic type of behavior. In fact, how quickly our brain recognizes the incongruity that lies at the heart of most humor and attaches an abstract meaning to it determines whether we laugh.”
11. When my sister told me that my mom had angrily joked about divorcing my father, I felt a sudden build up of confusion, rage, disillusionment, and relief. I scribbled the frustrations out, crumpled them up, and dunked the paper ball into the ever-growing pile of trash in our kitchen. I never voiced these concerns aloud.
12. It is unclear if humans are still in the process of evolving or if we have reached our peak.
13. Humans are believed to be equipped with a sort of “detector” that responds to laughter by generating the production of more laughter. This explains why laughter is contagious.
14. The day my parents sat us down and told us that my uncle had passed after exactly a week from my granny, I thought back to all of his ridiculous jokes and comments. I remembered the voicemails he had left me telling me how much he loves me. The short text conversations and calls on the phone to tell my sisters he said hi. The birthday message he sent a week before my actual birthday. I remember thinking how it was so fitting that he was born on April Fool’s Day. Remembering had my body shaking with nerves, the corner of my lips upturned, my eyes creasing, my voice non-existent. I remember seeing my younger sister choking on sobs. 
15. The term “evolution” dates from the Latin evolutionem, meaning “unrolling” or “an opening of what was rolled up.”
16. Constant and whole-hearted laughter assists your body fight off harmful diseases. 
17. I cried silently, to myself. I let the pain out in droves of silent whimpers and sniffles.
18. All humans develop a tail in the womb that eventually dissolves.
19. All those years of forcing my emotions into a ball came crashing down. My resolve unraveled. And somehow I was all the better for it.