April Fool's Day 2009: Humor - When We Need it Most!

Do you know the difference between a recession and a depression? A recession is when you lose your job. A depression is when I lose mine!”

So humorizes Becky Cortino, an Applied Humor Therapist of 12 years from Hickory, NC and a member of AATH - the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor. The mission of this international community of professionals, founded in 1987, is to study, practice and promote healthy humor and laughter.

“Sure, the economy is ailing,” admits Cortino, but it’s the people who are really getting sick of all this bad news they’re being force-fed on TV and in the papers. You do remember newspapers, don’t you? They managed to survive for 300 years until sound-bite, sensational journalism staged a hostile takeover!”

Hundreds of humor enthusiasts and professionals from around the world will convene in Las Vegas, April 2-5, 2009 for the 22nd Annual AATH Conference, “Healthy Humor: Hitting the Wellness Jackpot!” Focusing on theory and application in the fields of health care, education and business, the conference will offer ‘continuing education,’ networking opportunities, and fun for professionals who use humor and laughter in their jobs to enhance work performance, support learning, and promote healing, whether physical, emotional, social, or spiritual.

The AATH conference purposely coincides with ‘April Fools Day’ and the global celebration of Humor Month. But, Becky is quick to add a word of caution. “While ‘April Fools Day’ jokes and pranks may elicit laughter, they often tend to contradict the essence of ‘healthy’ humor.” According to AATH, cites Cortino, “Healthy, therapeutic humor enhances relationships, is non-hostile, sympathetic, benevolent, tolerant, and often philosophical. AATH is careful to distinguish it from hurtful, harmful humor that is more aggressive, critical, sarcastic, cruel, often based on put-downs, and involves laughing at someone else’s expense.”

“Shared laughter, humor and a smile comprise an international ‘language’ that connects all of mankind,” muses Becky. For this year’s conference, AATH has already registered people from as far away as Australia, China, New Zealand, India, Japan, Israel, Korea, England, Denmark and all across North America. With its international membership, AATH spreads the message that humor and laughter do have a place in creating healthier, more effective environments in which to live, work and play!

“Preserving your sense of humor is the essential, daily medication needed for maintaining your mental health,” prescribes Cortino. “Being able to laugh at this current economic mess, which we will get through, helps to sustain our emotional balance, our ‘quality of life,’ especially in the darkest of hours.”

Becky explains it with humorous, historical perspective, “It’s a little known fact… it was either Patrick Henry or Buck Henry… or maybe it was Henry Paulson or Pat Paulson who, prior to defiantly stating, “Give me liberty or give me death,” also proclaimed with a smile, “They may take my IRA, but they’ll never take my sense of humor!”A smiling Cortino summarizes, “We may not have control over trillion-dollar deficit spending, but we do have control over how we choose to approach each day that we wake up on this side of the dirt! We can either be grouchy and miserable (and we all know a few of those folks), or we can look for the humor that’s all around us… because it’s definitely there!”