In a message dated 8/30/00 9:41:23 AM Central Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> so many times I've signed on and followed a conversation thread and
>  learned something new, or just laughed --
>  and a *laugh* can be a godsend at times   ;)

A recent found item on laughter...

"I walked most of the time with Pere Darrault, the young Dominican. Rivulets
of sweat were running down his forehead and cheeks; his tonsure was burnt
dark red by the sun. I told him how I had watched the German tank column and
about that lad standing in the turret, and that for the first time in my life
I had felt a real urge to kill -- to kill without hatred. 'C'ext logique,' he
said: 'the only alternative to killing is preaching.' 'Go and try it,' I
said. 'Go and preach to those motorised Neanderthal men.' 'What else have you
and your friends done during these last years but preach to them?' he said;
'only your preachings and teachings were a little dry. They sounded like the
rustling of dry leaves.' He took a long gulp of red wine mixed with water
from his fieldflask. 'Your results with them were not much better either,' I
said. 'Mon cher,' he answered with his Mario-smile, 'we can wait. We can wait
and wait and wait. But you can't. That is the difference between us.'
'Concretely -- what would you preach to those men in the turrets?' 'Always
the same simple word which we have preached for the last two thousand years:
Love.' 'That is your mistake,' I said. 'Love is no alternative to hatred.
They can live perfectly well side by side in compartments of the same mind.'
'Not the love we mean. And what is your alternative?' I had waited for this,
for I thought that I had a good answer, and wanted to try it out on him. 'The
remedy against hatred,' I said, 'is to teach them to laugh and to smile.' He
began to chuckle. 'Bon Dieu,' he said. 'To make a Boche laugh-c'est possible.
But to teach him to smile-that is too much, even for a Dominican."

_Scum of the Earth_, Arthur Koestler