Laugh and Live Part 1

Laugh and Live.

by Douglas Fairbanks.

CHAPTER I

"WHISTLE AND HOE--SING AS WE GO"

There is one thing in this good old world that is positively sure--happiness is for _all_ who _strive_ to _be_ happy--and those who laugh _are_ happy.

Everybody is eligible--you--me--the other fellow.

Happiness is fundamentally a state of mind--not a state of body.

And mind controls.

Indeed it is possible to stand with one foot on the inevitable "banana peel" of life with both eyes peering into the Great Beyond, and still be happy, comfortable, and serene--if we will even so much as smile.

It's all a state of mind, I tell you--and I'm sure of what I say. That's why I have taken up my fountain pen. I want to talk to my friends--you hosts of people who have written to me for my recipe. In moving pictures all I can do is act my part and grin for you. What I say is a matter of your own inference, but with my pen I have a means of getting around the "silent drama" which prevents us from organizing a "close-up" with one another.

In starting I'm going to ask you "foolish question number 1."--

Do you ever laugh?

I mean do you ever laugh right out--spontaneously--just as if the police weren't listening with drawn clubs and a finger on the b.u.t.ton connecting with the "hurry-up" wagon? Well, if you don't, you should. _Start off the morning with a laugh and you needn't worry about the rest of the day._

I like to laugh. It is a tonic. It braces me up--makes me feel fine!--and keeps me in prime mental condition. Laughter is a physiological necessity. The nerve system requires it. The deep, forceful chest movement in itself sets the blood to racing thereby livening up the circulation--which is good for us. Perhaps you hadn't thought of that? Perhaps you didn't realize that laughing automatically re-oxygenates the blood--_your_ blood--and keeps it red? It does all of that, and besides, it relieves the tension from your brain.

_Laughter is more or less a habit._ To some it comes only with practice.

But what's to hinder practising? Laugh and live long--if you had a thought of dying--laugh and grow well--if you're sick and despondent--laugh and grow fat--if your tendency is towards the lean and cadaverous--laugh and succeed--if you're glum and "unlucky"--laugh and nothing can faze you--not even the Grim Reaper--for the man who has laughed his way through life has nothing to fear of the future. His conscience is clear.

Wherein lies this magic of laughter? For magic it is--a something that manufactures a state of felicity out of any condition. We've got to admit its charm; automatically and inevitably a laugh cheers us up. If we are bored--nothing to do--just laugh--that's something to do, for laughter is synonymous with action, and action dispels gloom, care, trouble, worry and all else of the same ilk.

Real laughter is spontaneous. Like water from the spring it bubbles forth a creation of mingled action and spontaneity--two magic potions in themselves--the very essence of laughter--the unrestrained emotion within us!

So, for me, it is to laugh! Why not stick along? The experiment won't hurt you. All we need is will power, and that is a personal matter for each individual to seek and acquire for himself. Many of us already possess it, but many of us do not.

Take the average man on the street for example. Watch him go plodding along--no spring, no elasticity, no vim. He is in _check-rein_--how can he laugh when his _pep_ is all gone and the _sand in his craw_ isn't there any more? What he needs is _spirit_! Energy--the power to force himself into action! For him there is no hope unless he will take up physical training in some form that will put him in normal physical condition--after that everything simplifies itself. The brain responds to the new blood in circulation and thus the mental processes are ready to make a fight against the inertia of stagnation which has held them in bondage.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Do You Ever Laugh?_ (_White Studio_)]

And, mind you, physical training doesn't necessarily mean going to an expert for advice. One doesn't have to make a mountain out of a molehill. Get out in the fresh air and walk briskly--and don't forget to wear a smile while you're at it. Don't over-do. Take it easy at first and build on your effort day by day. A little this morning--a little more tonight. The first chance you have, when you're sure of your wind and heart, get out upon the country road, or cross-country hill and dale. Then run, run, run, until you drop exhausted upon some gra.s.sy bank. Then laugh, loud and long, for you're on the road to happiness.

Try it now--don't wait. _Today is the day to begin._ Or, if it is night when you run across these lines, drop this book and trot yourself around the block a few times. Then come back and you'll enjoy it more than you would otherwise. Activity makes for happiness as nothing else will and once you stir your blood into little bubbles of energy you will begin to think of other means of keeping your bodily house in order.

Unless you make a first effort the chances are you will do very little real thinking of any kind--_we need pep to think_.

Think what an opportunity we miss when stripped at night if we fail to give our bodies a round of exercise. It is so simple, so easy, and has so much to do with our sleep each night and our work next day that to neglect to do so is a crime against nature. And laugh! Man alive, if you are not in the habit of laughing, _get the habit_. Never miss a chance to laugh aloud. Smiling is better than nothing, and a chuckle is better still--but _out and out laughter_ is the real thing. Try it now if you dare! And when you've done it, a.n.a.lyze your feelings.

I make this prediction--if you once start the habit of exercise, and couple with it the habit of laughter, even if only for one short week--you'll keep it up ever afterwards.

And, by the way, Friend Reader,--don't be alarmed. The personal p.r.o.nouns "_I_" and "_you_" give place in succeeding chapters to the more congenial editorial "_we_." I couldn't resist the temptation to enjoy one brief spell of intimacy just for the sake of good acquaintance.

_Have a laugh on me._

CHAPTER II

TAKING STOCK OF OURSELVES

Experience is the real teacher, but the matter of how we are going to succeed in life should not be left to ordinary chance while we are waiting for things to happen. Our first duty is to prepare ourselves against untoward experiences, and that is best done by taking stock of our mental and physical a.s.sets at the very outset of our journey. What weaknesses we possess are excess baggage to be thrown away and that is our reason for taking stock so early. It is likely to save us from riding to a fall.

There is one thing we don't want along--_fear_. We will never get anywhere with that, nor with any of its uncles, aunts or cousins--_Envy, Malice and Greed_. In justice to our own best interests we should search every crook and cranny of our hearts and minds lest we venture forth with any such impedimenta. There is no excuse, and we have no one to blame if we allow any of them to journey along with us. We know whether they are there or not just as we would know _Courage, Trust and Honor_ were they perched behind us on the saddle.

It is idle to squeal if through a.s.sociation with the former we find ourselves ditched before we are well under way--for it is coming to us, sooner or later. We might go _far_, as some have done, through the lanes and alleys of ill-gotten gains and luxurious self-indulgence, but we would pay in the end. So, why not charge them up to "profit and loss" at the start and kick them off into the gutter where they belong? They are not for us on our eventful journey through life, and the time to get rid of them once and for all is when we are young, and mentally and physically vigorous. Later on when the fires burn low and we still have them with us they will be hard to push aside.

"To thine own self be true," says the great Shakespeare and how can we be true to our own selves if we train with inferiors? We are known by our companionships. We will be rated according to a.s.sociation--good or bad. The two will not mix for long and we will be one sort of a fellow or the other. We can't be both.

There was a time, long years ago, in the days of our grandfathers, when men went to the "bow-wows" and, later on, "came back" as it were, by making a partial success in life--measured largely by the money they succeeded in acc.u.mulating. That was before the "check-up" system was invented. Today things are different. Questions are asked--"Where were you last?"--"Why did you leave there?"--"Have you credentials?"--and when we shake our weary head and walk away, we fondly wish we had "taken stock" back there when the "taking" was good.

"To thine own self be true; and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."

When we can a.n.a.lyze ourselves and find that we are living up to the quoted lines above we may safely lift the limit from our aspirations.

Right here it is well to say that success is not to be computed in dollars and cents, nor that the will to achieve a successful life is to be predicated upon the mere acc.u.mulation of wealth. First of all, good health and good minds--then we may laugh loud and long--we're safe on "first."

So, with these two weapons we may dig down into our aspirations, and, keeping in view that our policy is that of honesty to ourselves and toward our fellow man, all we need to do is to go about the program of life cheerfully and stout of heart--_for now we are in a state of preparedness_.

We are at the point where vision starts. Along with this vision must come the courage of convictions in order that we may feel that our ideas are important, and because we have such thoughts, _we shall surely succeed_. It has often been noticed that when we have had a large conception and have with force, character, and strength of will carried it into effect, immediately thereafter a host of people have been able to say: "I thought of that myself!" Most of us have had the same experience after reading of a great discovery that we had thrown overboard because it must not have been "worth while" or someone else would already have thought of it.

The man who puts life into an idea is acclaimed a genius, because he does _the right thing at the right time_. Therein lies the difference between the _genius_ and a _commonplace_ man.

We all have ambitions, but only the few achieve. A man thinks of a good thing and says: "Now if I only had the money I'd put that through." The word "if" was a dent in his courage. With character fully established, his plan well thought out, he had only to go to those in command of capital and it would have been forthcoming. He had something that capital would cheerfully get behind if he had the courage to back up his claims. To fail was nothing less than moral cowardice. _The will to do_ had not been efficient. There was a flaw in the character, after all.

Going back, therefore, to the prescription, we find that a _sound body_, a _good mind_, an _honest purpose_, and a _lack of fear_ are the essential elements of success. So, when we have conceived something for the good of the world and have allowed it to go by default we have dropped the monkey-wrench into the machinery of our preparedness. We must look about us for a reason. Have we fallen by the wayside of carelessness? Have we allowed ourselves to be discouraged by cowardly "ifs"? _Did we lack the sand_? Exactly so; we didn't have the courage of our convictions.

Life is the one great experience, and those who fail to win, if sound of body, can safely lay the blame to their lack of mental equipment. What does it matter if disappointments follow one after the other if we can _laugh and try again_? Failures must come to all of us in some degree, but we may rise from our failures and win back our losses if we are only shrewd enough to realize that good health, sound mind, and a cheerful spirit are necessary adjuncts. As Tennyson says:

"I held it truth, with him who sings To one clear harp in divers tones, That men may rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves to higher things."

All truly great men have been healthy--otherwise they would have fallen short of the mark. Prisons are filled with nervous, diseased creatures.

There is no doubt but that most of these who, through ignorance, sifted through to the bottomless pits could have saved themselves had they realized the truth and "taken stock" of themselves, _in time_--of course, allowing for those, who are victims of circ.u.mstantial evidence.

The prime necessity of life is health. With this, for mankind, nothing is impossible. But if we do not make use of this good health it will waste itself away and never come back. It often disappears entirely for lack of interest on the part of its thoughtless owner. A little energy would have saved the day. _A little "pep"--and we laugh and live._ Laughter clings to good health as naturally as the needle clings to the magnet. It is the outward expression of an unburdened soul. It bubbles forth as a fountain, always refreshing, always wholesome and sweet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Over the Hedge and on His Way_]

In taking stock of ourselves we should not forget that fear plays a large part in the drama of failure. That is the first thing to be dropped. Fear is a mental deficiency susceptible of correction, if taken in hand before it gains an ascendency over us. Fear comes with the thought of failure. Everything we think about should have the possibility of success in it if we are going to build up courage. We should get into the habit of reading _inspirational books_, looking at _inspirational pictures_, hearing _inspirational music_, a.s.sociating with _inspirational friends_ and above all, we should cultivate the habit of mind of thinking clean, and of doing, wholesome things.