“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” ~Victor Borge

Connie and I anticipate our annual “Pearson Cousins Camp” for 51 weeks of each passing year.  Rarely does a week go by without some sort of reference to past years or plans for the coming year. Our anticipation includes a mixture of some childlike and some more realistic emotions.  Camp number six last week filled us with new memories and insights, and we began our planning for next year not long after the tail lights disappeared over the hill signifying that all nine of the “campers” were now safely back in the care of Moms and Dads.

Among the funny stories was one that developed at the swimming pool.  We faithfully counted nine kids continuously each time we were at the pool.  Just when we felt like we deserved overtime pay (ha), Megan popped up with her foggy goggles and with the purest of sincerity said, “If you don’t see me, I’ll be underwater”.

Trying to describe events of the week would be laborious for both me and anyone who might read my post today.  More importantly, any special moment I might try to describe would surely fail because most are the “you had to be there” kind of events.

The one thing lingering most vividly for me; the one picture dominating my memory from last week is children laughing.  Not children in the general sense.  I am seeing my children’s children laughing.  Sometimes laughing at me.  Sometimes at each other.  And many times the laughter burst out at some totally unplanned and unpredictable situation.

Most adults spend some time laughing.  But not nearly enough.  Children have not yet bought into the misguided adult mindset that laughter should be appropriately controlled and subdued.  Somehow children laugh in a totally uninhibited, highly gratifying way that apparently releases some of those naturally occurring, good-feeling hormones pent-up far too long within the enterochromaffin cells and serotonergic neurons of adult bodies.  Being in the presence of children laughing as only they can laugh is truly one of life’s treasures.  I can only hope the positive effects of 8 days of soaking in children laughing will be enough to last until our next opportunity to get a refill.