Dancing Among the Ivories

Music class at Calvert Junior High progressed as usual.

That is, until our instructor sat down at the piano with her back to most of the class. Moments later I noticed the girl seated directly to my left roll up a spitball. She placed it in her left hand and sent it to the front of the room, where it danced merrily along the keyboard between the nimble fingers of our instructor. I held my breath as the spitball appeared to be propelled along by the interactive energy of those keys and fingers.

Suppressed giggles erupted among the students until our teacher turned to face the class and asked sternly, “Who shot the spitball?” A blanket of silence covered the students. The girl beside me gave the appearance of perfect innocence, but I could not restrain my giggles. As a result I was asked to leave the class! With my rather spontaneous personality, it took me many years to learn to rein in my humor. What causes laughter? Why are we created to laugh? Medical science tells us laughter triggers healthy physical and mental changes in the body: it strengthens the immune system, boosts energy while diminishing pain and stress by relaxing muscles and producing endorphins, and improves heart function and blood flow.

Our Creator has set up this complex mechanism within our brain that triggers spontaneous humor from the unexpected. Now I know why a spitball dancing among the ivories on the piano long ago was so funny to the group of early teens.

A prescription given by our Creator to enhance better health is found in His manual for living, the holy Bible. My paraphrase of Proverbs 17:22 reads something like this, “A happy heart is the best medicine!” Commenting on the same verse, Ellen White writes, “There is a physiological truth—truth that we need to consider—in the scripture, ‘A merry [rejoicing] heart doeth good like a medicine.’ Proverbs 17:22.”* He fills our prescription each morning as we take His Word into our hearts through reading, meditation, and prayer.

His abiding presence brings us joy and wellness.

We become more conscious of His blessings, the voice of the meadowlark, the playfulness of His creatures, and the innocent humor around us.

Life’s sorrows and burdens seem a little lighter.

Remember, laughter begins with the birth of a smile.

Let us become infectious!

Dottie Barnett

* Ellen G. White, Education (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press®, 1903), 197.