My friend Susan (AKA WhyMommy from Toddler Planet) is having surgery today. Jean from Stimeyland is hosting a Virtual Science Fair and my virtual science project will test Norman Cousins’ hypothesis that laughing promotes healing  by moving oxygen to the blood and increasing endorphins.  More oxygen to the blood and a surge of endorphins is believed to mimic anesthesia and dull pain.  I I am going to test his hypothesis using anecdotal data. The data was initially collected in 1985, and this is the very first time it is being released publicly and being made available for study.  Or in other words, I haven’t embarrassed myself this badly in a loooong time. But in the interest of science, specifically planetary science-Susan’s field of expertise-I am going to hit “publish” and share my findings.

I failed Astronomy in college and had to retake it.   I didn’t fail the class because I was a poor student, and I didn’t fail it because I couldn’t understand the material.  I failed it because I didn’t realize I was taking Astronomy. True, I had signed up for Introduction to Astronomy.  The class was being held in the planetary science building. However, I still didn’t know I was taking Astronomy. Keep in mind both of my parents are college professors, I grew up in a college environment. I understood how to register for my classes, I even understood that “TBA” was not a building and I even decided to get all of the required courses out of the way before adding any electives. This is how I wound up taking a hard science my freshman year.  It was required, and I was going to get it out of the way.  Physics did not appeal to me, geology seemed like a yawn.  I quickly filled in the rest of my classes and I was all set to begin my freshman year at the University of Arizona.

On the first day of class I showed up on time. I took my seat, I listened for my name to be called. And it was. I was in the right room, at the right time. But I still didn’t know I was in Astronomy.  Admittedly when the instructor began to go over the syllabus I waved away my initial confusion.  When he mentioned we would be required to attend a lab in addition to the regular class, I said nothing to anyone sitting near me and pretended I thought this was normal and expected. But in my head I was thinking, “What would we be doing in a lab?” You see, I still didn’t know I was taking Astronomy.

So after that first day of class, I felt a little overwhelmed, but figured I just needed to pick up my text book and read a couple of chapters.   After all, the professor had mentioned the planets, stars and a few zodiac signs.  This made sense to me. However, the next class gave way to more confusion as the professor also mentioned Galileo and Magellan. Again, I felt like something was a bit “off” about this class and I turned to the guy sitting next to me and inquired, “Hey, do you know if we have to bring Tarot cards to lab?”  He stared back at me blankly.  I pretended not to notice and mumbled something about checking later with the TA.

After class I went up to the TA and asked about the required lab. When I got to the part about the Tarot cards, he stopped me, “Devra, you do realize this class is Astronomy and not Astrology.  Don’t you?”

Now why don’t you leave a funny story of your own in the comments for Susan to read, because I do think Norman Cousins’ is absolutely right, laughter contributes positively to the healing process.