A Matter of Perspective

I shared this article on my diabeteshealthnuts.com website earlier this week but wanted to share it here, as well. I hope you enjoy it.

April Fool’s Day, the meaning of life

and the healing power of laughter

What does April Fool’s Day have to do with the meaning of life? Maybe nothing, but if you want to take a closer look, read on and see what I mean.

April Fool’s Day...

The origin of April Fool’s Day is actually kind of a mystery for no one really knows what started it.

According to History.com, one possible origin could be the following: “Some historians speculate that April Fool’s Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. In the Julian Calendar, as in the Hindu calendar, the new year began with the spring equinox around April 1.

People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes and were called ‘April fools.’”

Well, it seems like that could be a bit of a stretch, but I didn’t live in the 1500s and maybe their idea of a joke was different from what I would consider funny.

Still, shrouded in mystery as it is, it is fun to play out some good-humored pranks.

I still remember one that my parents played on me when I was a kid.

We had a black cat named “Blackie.” I loved him and played with him every day in our barn when we were out doing the chores.

This particular day I hadn’t seen him and asked my mom and dad if they had seen him.

“What black cat? You mean that white cat we have? Do you mean Whitey?” my dad asked me.

“No. I mean Blackie. Have you seen him?”

“We don’t have a black cat.”

Well, this went on for a while and I was getting frustrated with my parents and starting to think I may have been losing my mind!

Finally, my dad, who had seen Blackie come home from whatever cats do, said, “Oh there’s Whitey,” and picked him up and started petting him.

I am pretty sure that was the beginning of my quest for the meaning of life or at least the meaning of sanity!

The meaning of life...

If you have ever seen the Monty Python movie, “The Meaning of Life,” you might begin to see the correlation that I am drawing between levity (April Fool’s Day) and the meaning of life.

The movie as briefly described on IMBD.com is: “Why are we here, what’s it all about? The Monty Python team is trying to sort out the most important question on Earth: what is the meaning of life?”

They look at life through the ages and through the many segmented parts of life from birth to death. If you get a chance to see it, I think you might enjoy it if you like an irreverent look at life through this comedy troupe’s eyes.

What does this have to do with type 2 diabetes?

Absolutely nothing!

The point of this article is just to emphasize that we all need to look at the lighter side of life from time to time and not take everything so seriously.

While type 2 diabetes is no laughing matter, the healing power of laughter should not be denied, either.

According to the Law of Attraction website, there are seven powerful healing powers of laughter. They are:

• Laughter stops fear

• Laughter relaxes us

• Laughter is comforting

• Laughter boosts the immune system

• Laughter eases pain

• Laughter combats stress

• Laughter is contagious

All of these things are very beneficial for people struggling with the type 2 diabetes condition. All of them are very beneficial for everyone!

Perhaps if we spent more time laughing and less time arguing about our differences and our problems, life itself would be a lot easier to live and there would be less sickness and mental distress.