A CHEAP MEDICINE.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 39, 10 December 1920, Page 13

A CHEAP MEDICINE.

It lias been wisely sald somewhere, "Always laugh when you can: It is a cheap medicine." And the present being a time when even our medicines decidedly "cost us more," it might be as well to remember this statement, if merely for reasons - of economy. But apart from anything of the kind, laughter has everything to commend it. Someono else speaks of it as philosophy not sufficiently understood . . . the sunny side of existence," a descriptio.i which little exaggerates the importance of a thing which more swiftly than anything else will draw complete strangers into fnutual understanding, smooth over strained moments that must occur even between those near and dear to each other, and send the light of the sane and normal into dark and murky corners where sullen humours might otherwise brood and lurk. The well-known lines, "Laugh and wie world laughs with you, weep, and you weep alone," we could all quote glibly, though no doubt we should call them cynical. But, exaggerated as they undoubtedly are, since in this old world tlie blessed gift of sympatliy for another's sorrow has never been wholly impr#ssible to find, are they so altcgether cynical? For there can be no question that unending, undiluted grief is very wearing to those. who share as well as those who experience it, and the "Mrs Gummidges" of life are liable to be less popular and beloved than those who, carrying their troubles braveW have stili not forgotten how now and then to laugh. The world went through stern and terrible months during the war, and often it was not easy for any of us to laugh Even now there are a good many worries and botherments, delays, and disloeations of all kinds, consequent on the great upheaval, which we find trying to the nerves and temper, and apt to be depressing at times. The best thing we can do with all these, before they begin to loom too seriously in our minds, is to laugh at them. For perfectly certain is it that in nine cases out of ten they have, if we only cultivate the gift sjaf humour that allows us to see it, their funny side, which at least eauals and c oun t er -b al ances the other.