Zen Paths to Laughter

I do think this book is a bit mistitled. I certainly had Zen-like thoughts from reading it, but they emerged from the laughter. Laughter did not emerge from the Zen-like thoughts. That's the main difference between this book and a joke, cartoon, or riddle book. Instead of feeling superior, you feel at peace with yourself and the world."Laughter uplifts the spirit. Like a flash, it appears from nowhere to illuminate a dull day. Even at moments of great sadness we need laughter, which is why it often emerges when people are brought together in grief." "[Laugher] brings balance, a release of tension, and this calm.""Zen asks us to adopt a youthful attitude to life, to see it as it is, rather than as we want it to be." "This book reaches some of the myriad sources of laughter, and accompanies them with natural and conceptual images."The illustrations clearly play a big role in setting the mood, because they are usually elegant black-and-white photographs that evoke many memories. Here are a few of my favorite sections:As you look at a picture of coffee being poured, Groucho Marx asks, "Room Service? Send up a larger room."As you peer at a beautiful bubble suspended in a liquid, Fyodor Dostoyevsky opines, "If you wish to glance inside a human soul and get to know a man . . .[you can do so] just with his laugh. If he laughs well, he's a good man."Looking through many superimposed mechanical clock faces, Groucho reminds you that "Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like [emphasis on "like"] a banana." Very neatly done grammatical play, don't you think? The typography uses changes in type size and location to create the emphasis to get the most out of the quotes, as this one requires.Examining a large rock in a crevice amongst smaller rocks, Samuel Goldsmith tells you, "I am willing to admit that I may not always be right, but I am never wrong."Looking at positive and negative images of an open hand, Black Hawk observes, "If you treat a sick child like an adult and a sick adult like a child, everything usually works out pretty well."Some of the other authors of quotes in this volume include Dr. Spock, Lewis Carroll, Isaac Asimov, Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Austen, Bill Cosby, Katherine Hepburn, John Wayne (on playing John Wayne), Woody Allen, Gregory Peck, Charles Schulz, Ogden Nash, Pascal, Rossini, Dan Quayle, Mel Brooks, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.This fine volume will bring you much pleasure, as well as anyone you gift with it. After you have finished enjoying the book, I suggest you develop your own lines and images that bring peaceful happiness to you, in the absence of feeling smug or superior. In that way, you can build your own Zen garden in your heart.Overcome your reluctance to laugh youthfully!