Editorial Oct 2020

Dear Readers,

One day this month, I was in school, remotely, watching a video for my history class, when a sudden shock nearly made me fall off my chair. It was loud and bone-chilling laughter, very appropriate for Halloween. Long after the history class ended, I continued to think about laughter. People say laughter is the best medicine, and it was true enough that the laughter in that history video made it more interesting (or at any rate, I was poised for any future shocks for the rest of it). According to Mayo Clinic, though, this cliché phrase is no joke. It is actually true that smiling is a coping mechanism when dealing with stressful situations, and since the overwhelmingly popular feeling in 2020 has been stress and anxiety, I think we can all agree that we need all the good news we can get. Smile more often, whether you actually feel like it or not; the action of smiling leads to the release of endorphins, which will really improve your mood. The effects of laughter are contagious – as Ella Wheeler Wilcox once said, “laugh and the world laughs with you.” (PS: if you are in a ruminative mood, read her full poem Solitude). In short, even if the world seems scary at times, laugh and keep going J There’s so much good if you look for it.

Enjoy this edition, readers!

Love,

Editor Jaanu

editorjaanu@gmail.com

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