The pup (posed above with her rawhide cigar like a Borscht Belt comedian) is, like most dogs, a natural clown and Trickster; she has no problem whatsoever accessing the Inner Fool. Between Tilly and a husband who spent 20 years roaming around the world clowning for a living, ours is a household never short on laughter, thank heavens. I'm utterly exhausted at the moment (too darn much work to catch up on after more-than-a-month lost to flu and health complications), but I'm remembering the following pearls of wisdom:

"Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward."  - Kurt Vonnegut

"What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul."  - Yiddish Proverb

"Laughter is the corrective force which prevents us from becoming cranks." - Henri Bergson