Trina Machacek: Laugh a little longer

My idea of laughter is not “lol.” Apparently, I don’t get where lol is supposed to take me. I do not hear the sender’s laughter when I read lol. I haven’t much more than smiled in a while when I read lol from someone. I wonder if I am the only one who isn’t enamored with lol and long for longer laughter, I bet not. Oh, I see where it came from. When texting started lol was short, to the point and new and maybe even a little funny. But now lol is not so much truly lol as it is just a smirk.

I was having a grand talk with friends recently — imagine that, yours truly talking, lol — and I noticed that even though the conversation was lively and fun, there wasn’t a lot of lol-ing happening. There were a ton of smiles and a chuckle here and there, but I seemed to be laughing out loud more than most. I don’t think I am obnoxious. I don’t think I am obtrusive. Sure, sure Trina — and the only ones who are crazy are the ones who don’t think they are nuts-o. Anyway, I just really love to laugh. So, of course, I have to dissect lol-ing to the Nth degree. This should be fun…

Babies laugh like nobody is watching and that is remarkable. When we lose that in ourselves, we start to laugh inwardly. Then we move to just smiling. Don’t get me wrong; smiling is a good thing for sure. But. Yep, I’m zinging in a “but.” But smiling should be the precursor to laughing, not a gate to keep a laugh from escaping from your face! Come on, let it out already.

I was watching a really old episode of “M*A*S*H*” recently where one of the characters, Major Winchester, a stalwart, uptight guy, who, try as he might to keep it in, he couldn’t help but laugh at a very corny USO comedian. Just seeing him trying not to laugh made me laugh. He felt so silly because he found something amusing. He was embarrassed by his loss of control. That sometimes is so true of way too many of us. We have become afraid to laugh. Well, I laugh in the face of that. HAHAHA! Ah, this is where I wanted to go. The HAHAHA way I express my laughter with my fingers.

When I read lol, I know what it means, but I have no love of it. But when I read HAHAHAHAHA, well, that I will actually HAHAHAHAHA along with. How strange is that? I have to admit I will see the HA HA’s written but I don’t always HAHA along with it. I feel it more than I know it’s a laugh. An out-loud laugh. One that has rumbled out through a smile, past teeth to make a sound. Yes, a true lol is, to me, a HAHAHAHAHA. Well, isn’t that funny?

You need to have full control of your fingers when you laugh through words. HAHAHAHA can easily become AHAHAHAH, which has a completely different meaning. That is used more as a feeling when you watch a sleeping baby. AHAHAHAH. But when that baby is wide awake and has discovered the belly laugh for the first time and gets to going with laughter, free from the binds that tries to tie us “grown-ups” down, the truest form of laughter that will eventually turn everyone, even Major Winchester, into a bowl of jelly? Well, that is a HAHAHAHA moment. Big ole difference. But same baby. Maybe the same baby — uh, maybe baby. Get me off this baby merry-go-round!

So even though lol is fast and will forever be part of our fingertip laughter, give HAHAHA a try for a while. You might find that when you can see laughter as HAHAHA, you will actually lol and that will become an AHAHAH moment when you actually make the sound of laughter. The one that we often forget to let loose from our diaphragms. HAHAHAHA…

Oh, and an “FYI” — hahaha is not HAHAHA. A hahaha is more of a tee-hee-hee. Funny how that works, isn’t it? Class dismissed.

Trina lives in Eureka, Nev. Share with her at itybytrina@yahoo.com. Really!