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with thanks to karen bardo: --------------------------------------------------- High society Thursday, February 15, 2001 - KENNEBUNK — For Kathy Lyons, laughing is serious business, and she's not kidding around. Or maybe she is. Lyons is the founder of The Society for Ladies Who Laugh Out Loud. The group bills itself as "an international band of women creating community and a comic perspective of life's gremlins, a rebellion against the Order of The Sisters of Perpetual Responsibility, and a mission to prevent terminal seriousness." Simply put, it's a group of women who get together to laugh. "Its goal is to get women laughing despite the odds," Lyons said. While researching the health benefits of laughter for a book, Lyons became convinced that people are just healthier and happier if they are surrounded by others who laugh out loud. She taught a class on the subject and began conducting seminars and workshops. She formed the society in 1994. Today, The Society for Ladies Who Laugh Out Loud has 30 chapters around the country, as well as in Canada, Australia and Hong Kong. Locally, the group meets once a month for two hours. Each gathering has a theme, such as the day the ladies dressed up as clowns and went out to breakfast. "It transformed the whole place," said Lyons. "The rest of the people there were given permission to laugh, and we were the props." One meeting that has become a group favorite was Isadora Duncan Day. In a tribute to Duncan, a dance and choreography pioneer, the Ladies dressed in gauzy clothing and danced on the beach, drinking tea in the surf as a white horse ridden by Prince Charming galloped along the shore. Gloria Adams, a Society member, said her favorite meeting was the beach parade of umbrellas. "We flew kites, sang old songs, played with water guns and just became like happy children," she said. "I will never forget the sight of those gaily decorated umbrellas, streamers blowing in the wind, my seaweed skirt swirling as I danced on the sand barefooted." Laughter has actually been a problem for Rhonda Brooks, another member. Brooks said that everything makes her laugh, and that she was always the one laughing too loud and for too long when no one else did. Laughter, Brooks said, "feels really good to me, and the best is when it even makes you cry it's so funny." The Society meetings provide a place for these women to be silly and to play, said Lyons. "I believe that women so often gather in pain, yet we are more than our pain and our struggles," she said. "We are also women who have a wonderful sense of humor, even if we are too weary to do it, and we need a place to do that." For Adams, The Society for Ladies Who Laugh Out Loud has given her a sense of living that she had never experienced before, she said. As a cancer survivor, Adams said that laughter increases the blood flow to her brain and moves her entire body in rhythmic spasms, which exercise her laugh muscles. For two hours each month, Lyons said, "we know we're going to come to a place that will nurture the playful side and that is as healing as anything else. It begins to infiltrate the other days of the month, you can gradually face the dragons in your life and see the humor in things." Membership in the group ranges from stay-at-home moms to educators and includes women of all ages. It's open to everyone, even men, who will receive a card describing them as a Gentleman of Good Breeding (and good humor). Lyons said her dream is to have a chapter in every hometown around the world. "I hope it will someday exist without me and find a life of its own," she said. "I would love it if Oprah Winfrey would think this was a great idea and take it over." For information e-mail Lyons at [log in to unmask], or visit the Web site at: http://www.ladieslaugh.com. By KATHY LABUSKI, News Assistant Kathy Labuski can be contacted at 282-8226 or at: [log in to unmask] Copyright 2001 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. http://www.portland.com/news/york/010215feature.shtml janet paterson, an akinetic rigid subtype parkie 53 now / 44 dx cd / 43 onset cd / 41 dx pd / 37 onset pd TEL: 613 256 8340 SMAIL: PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario K0A 1A0 Canada EMAIL: [log in to unmask] URL: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/