In 1862, under the heavy burden of leading a divided nation through the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, gathered his cabinet to discuss his draft of the Emancipation Proclamation—the executive order that would make 3.5 million American slaves free people.  But before the discussion of the draft, Lincoln read a humorous story titled “High Handed Outrage at Utica” by Artemus Ward (the pen name of Charles Farrar Browne).  Lincoln thought it was hilarious. But a few of his cabinet members, including Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, didn’t feel it was the time or the place for laughter.

Lincoln famously replied, “Gentlemen…with the fearful strain that is upon me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.”  And then he read the Proclamation aloud to the assembled cabinet. 

Ecclesiastes tells us, there is “a time to weep, and a time to laugh….”  But that doesn’t mean that laughter is only for the good times.  Sometimes, we need laughter most of all in the midst of unbearable hardship.  Lincoln understood this, and it gave him some joy even in the face of great difficulty—Secretary Stanton did not. 

So don’t be afraid of a little laughter when you’re weighed down by life.  It might just lighten your load.

Today’s joke:

A cruise ship passes by a remote island, and all the passengers see a bearded man running around and waving his arms wildly.

“Captain,” one passenger asks, “who is that man over there?”  

“I have no idea,” the captain says, “but he goes nuts every year when we pass him.”

Have a wonderful day.