This story was written with my tongue in my cheek!

The sheriff of a small Texas town, one hot afternoon, observed a cowboy walk to the back of his horse, lift its tail and give it a big kiss where the sun never shines. Intrigued the sheriff wanted to know the reason for this strange behaviour. "Well now" said the cowboy "I have chapped lips..."Well I'll be danged," drawled the Sheriff "is what you just did a good remedy for chapped lips?" No" said the cowboy, "it's not.... but it sure stops me from licking them!"

If you found the foregoing amusing; if you smiled or if you had a good belly laugh then you have just improved your health and reduced your stress because laughter is linked to a reduction in blood pressure, releasing endorphins and lowering stress hormones in your body.
I recently read the above joke in a book "Crying with cockroaches" written by a South African woman Marianne du Toit who describes her journey, travelling on foot and horseback across Central America from Argentina to New York. She faced many crises but a sense of humour, an ability to laugh at herself, was the only thing that kept her going.
You may well ask what is all this leading up to? Quite frankly I am not too sure myself and perhaps as the Irish are wont to say: "if you do not know what it's all about how will you ever know when to stop?" In Dublin all roads lead down to the Liffey. Asking for directions to Waterford I was seriously informed by a venerable Irishman that: "If I were going to Waterford I would certainly not be starting from here!" And perhaps I too, writing this column, should not be starting from here!
Have we South Africans lost the ability to laugh? Has our sense of humour been so dulled by the plethora of "misery" we see every day: murder, rape, corruption, mismanagement that we are becoming conditioned to wretchedness keeping us in a continual state of dejection?
We find fault with everything: the Government, with other racial groups, lack of services ... that our school girls are banned from wearing ethnic hairdos at prominent schools, becomes headline news! This wretched malaise spills over into our day to day living, our homes, our families ...!
There is certainly nothing to celebrate about our Government; they are a humongous joke... gone wrong! I suppose one can say the problem with political jokes is they get elected! However, politicians and nappies should be changed frequently....and both for the same reason!
Just ask yourself when last you really laughed, really let go? When last have you even shared a smile with someone?
We South Africans and particularly we Port Elizabethans have had little to laugh about recently. However, we have voted for change and a bright new future. We now need to "lighten up", concentrate on the positives and laugh more, especially at ourselves.
Cry and we cry alone, laugh and the whole world laughs with us! - Talbot Cox