A poet said, ”The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” Of course it is very hard, but we could always find something to laugh about even during the most difficult situations in life.
In the freezing winter of 1988, most of northern Armenia, including the city of Gyumri, was devastated by a monstrous quake where thousands of people lost their lives. Our family lost many relatives, including children.
I was 13 at the time and had just learned to use a camera. I had barely mastered a light meter on the camera to measure the amount of sun light, but what would I need that for if the sun had set for good for Armenia?
In any case, I decided to take the bus to Gyumri with only my camera and a sweater or two. As I went from the bus station to my aunt's house, I couldn’t help but notice death ruling over the city. Since there weren’t enough coffins to bury the people who’d lost their lives, the piano factory had started making coffins to help make sure everyone received a proper burial.
Those few days I spent walking around the city in the freezing temperatures stained my mind. There were coffins everywhere, bodies all over the city that were still being pulled out from under the debris.
But what really has imprinted onto my memory, has become an inseparable part of me, was seeing those people who had lost their children, siblings, friends or parents, cracking instantaneous jokes. At first it seemed that were gone mad from the horrible calamity, but later I realized that it was their innate survival mechanism kicking in. It was the only way they could have stay sane.
The people of Gyumri are known to embody amazing humor, and their ability to stay true to their humor was tested during those hard times.
Let us find the funny in the worst places, let’s laugh and let’s stay sane in the face of insanity. None of us are immune to the pulsating rhythms of the universe, for she is a clumsy and mischievous bear cub; it plays, it collapses, it causes trouble, it grows up, it collects itself together and becomes a protective and intelligent mamma bear and repeats the whole thing all over again and again and again. So it’s clear that everything that happens belongs.
Therefore, laugh ... IF you can.
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