If you are ever having a foggy day and your joy seems to have fallen into a funk, just take a moment to chat with a kid. That is guaranteed to snap you out of your gloom, really fast. The questions they can ask sure beat anything you could pay to hear at the comedy spot.

Some years ago my husband was standing next to a father and son while attending an event during which a commercial blimp flew overhead.  The little boy gazed quizzically at the sky, tugged his father’s shirt tail and asked:  “Is dat a bomb?”

My daughter, Sherri, directs a Black History Month program every February.  A few weeks ago on a Saturday, she invited anyone interested in participating to meet with her to discuss ideas.

Her most enthusiastic attendee was eight-year old Jeremiah.  Jeremiah—the walking encyclopedia on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—announced that he envisioned himself playing lead in several scenes from Dr. King’s life. Immediately, a role reversal took place and Jeremiah began directing himself.  “First, I’ll need a wife,” he said.  Then he described the other actors and staging needed for his most vivid scene—being shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.  Jeremiah had it all figured out.

Amused, Sherri listened then proposed her own idea. “You are on the balcony, there is a shot and then you fall.” Jeremiah looked at her aghast.  Brow wrinkled, lips pursed. It was a trick and he knew it. He saw the script changing, his lines cut, his most creative scenes eliminated.  Jeremiah snapped back fast. “Then, there’s the funeral…right?”

When Sherri told me that story I fell out laughing at Jeremiah’s quick wit. Sure enough, the following Sunday when she drove around to pick me up at the curb after church, there was Jeremiah sitting in the front passenger seat. He had brought his favorite pictorial book about Dr. King to church. Proof for Sherri of his research, of course.  When he offered to get out so that I could sit down, I insisted that he stay put. What? And miss the next Jeremiah-ism, up close and personal?

If Art Linkletter had not written the book or if Bill Cosby had not already done the television show, I would launch my own version of “Kids Say the Darndest Things.”  We need to laugh more. Laughter reduces the stress that taints our lives. Laughter can eliminate our sleep and anxiety disorders, eradicate panic attacks and conquer fretfulness.  Life is stressful. Living fearlessly is best accomplished with a full dose of deep chuckles, quiet giggles or full-out belly laughs. Take your pick.

A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.

~Proverbs 17:22 (New King James Version)