by Diana Frances
As I pack to head back from Puerto Vallarta to Toronto and take my final dose of antibiotics from last week’s food poisoning, I had a deep thought: We are living in a time where we are purposely and consciously being injected with poison.
The poison is fear, dread, worry, hatred, and division. For those in charge of the poison, the goal is to make us so emotionally sick that they can provide what they believe is the cure.
Their cure involves control. I don’t want their cure because we have our own. Hear me out.
Reading the news and being aware of current politics can leave you curled up in a ball of helplessness, weakened by the sickness they’ve injected us with.
We have to remember that the only thing we can control is our actions.
I realized that I’m in an incredibly unique position where I make people laugh for a living. I get to be on stage and get the immediate gratification of hearing joy because of something I’ve just said or done with my improv partners.
I picture laughter like antibiotics being pumped into the veins of everyone in the audience who needs it.
“Laughter triggers the release of several hormones, including endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin, which contribute to feelings of well-being, happiness, and pain relief.”
So, in my mind… antibiotics.
I picture people leaving the theater just a little bit emotionally healthier. I imagine them in the car ride home, giggling with their spouse… the earlier argument about dishes not as raw. When someone cuts them off in traffic, a laughing wave replaces what would have been the angry snap of a middle finger. Perhaps they’re that much more patient with the mess the kids made or the pillow the dogs tore up.
This is all in my imagination, of course – but I like the idea of it, and I don’t think it’s total fantasy.
Now… this is my profession, and making people laugh pays my bills. So, how can I make more antibiotics that don’t rely on a paycheque? Acts of Service.
I love dogs. So, it brings me immense joy to donate my time to help organizations like The Sula Society bring puppers to their new loving owners. Often, I have to enlist two or three other humans in Toronto to be part of the volunteer village… to foster overnight, pick up crates, or drive to new locations. All of us get immense satisfaction and joy knowing we were a small but necessary part of the process to bring the pure love of a dog to their new owners. And the knowledge that every adoption opens up a space for another one to be rescued.
That little hit of joy and self-satisfaction fights the poison. Makes us feel like we have purpose. We are needed. We helped. More antibiotics into our systems.
What I’m saying is… the only thing you can control when you feel overwhelmed and helpless are your own actions. Acts of Service can create those much-needed emotional antibiotics that stave away the sickness they’re trying to inject us with.
When it all gets too much, ask yourself, “How can I make my own antibiotics to stay healthy?”
If we all do it in some tiny, small, but important way – we’ll stay healthy.
And we have to be healthy to fight.
If you agree with this, please share.
