Lily-livered

I have talked about the expression "lily-livered" before, but when it was featured this week by Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day, I thought it worth mentioning again. Here is what Merriam-Webster has to say about lily-livered:

"lily-livered  \LILL-ee-LIV-erd\  adjective
: lacking courage : cowardly

Example sentence:
"I regret not hurling myself into university life because I was too...lily-livered to live a little." (Laura Barton, The Guardian [London], August 16, 2001)

Did you know?
The basis of the word "lily-livered" lies in an old belief. Years ago, people thought that health and temperament were the products of a balance or imbalance of four bodily fluids, or humors: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. It was believed that a deficiency of yellow bile, or choler, the humor that governed anger, spirit, and courage, would leave a person's liver colorless or white. Someone with this deficiency, and so white-livered, would be spiritless and a coward. "Lily-livered" and "white-livered" have been used synonymously since the 16th century, but "lily-livered" is now the more common expression, probably because of its alliteration."

What's so funny about this? Bile is a bodily humor. (I can hear the groans already.)

Laughter as an Act of Communion

The average child laughs around 400 times every day. Contrast this with the average adult who laughs approximately 25 times a day. This fact makes me want to either cry, read Dave Barry or watch Carol Burnett reruns.  For me, laughter is the backbone of physical, emotional and spiritual health. Humor is the thread that keeps me from unraveling. I find ways to inject appropriate humor into nearly everything.

I think that humor helps me cope with all of life’s challenges, particularly hepatitis C (HCV). HCV was not a laughing matter when I was first diagnosed, but over time, it has provided some amusing moments. This is particularly true when I am in an HCV group with others who live with this virus. Laughing with others is a communal act. It is like sharing an intimate moment or a fine meal. Laughter lifts the spirits and for a brief time suspends the hard edge of reality. It reminds us that we are all in the same boat.

Laughter Yoga

For those of you who appreciate laughter, you may be delighted to learn that there is a practice called Laughter Yoga. Originating in India, Laughter Yoga is the practice of laughing as a discipline rather than merely for pleasure. Dr. Madan and Madhuri Kataria developed Laughter Yoga about ten years ago and now there are laughter clubs worldwide. Training is available for anyone interested in becoming a certified Laughter Yoga instructor.

The Laughter Yoga website takes laughter very seriously. So much so, that the following warning is given: “Too much of a good thing can become a bad thing. You cannot laugh too little, but you can laugh too much and put your body into destress (sic).” I assume that this is a typo or translation error and the author meant distress rather than destress. Heck, to de-stress is the main reason why I laugh. Also, I have a hard time believing the statement that one can laugh too much.

The Laughter Yoga caution goes on to say that, too much laughter can actually be dangerous, especially for older people (geezers like me). Well, this may seem closed-minded, but I cannot imagine getting through the geezer years without laughing a lot. Between the loss of eyesight, hearing, brain, keys, stamina, waistline, and sex, I am hanging onto laughter as if it is a life preserver. Besides, death by laughter sounds like a great way to go.


Laughter Yoga International

Insult to the Liver

In medicine, if there is a blow or other injury to the liver, physicians will often say that the patient suffered an insult to the liver. I am sure you know where I am going with this. Who can resist imagining insults to the liver? Here are a few:

• Your liver is ugly
• Your mother's liver is ugly
• Your liver can't hold a candle to mine
• Your liver is stupid
• Your liver can't tell the difference between hepatitis A and hepatitis B
• You have a puny liver
• Your liver is so small, it won't show up on an MRI
• Your liver is so tiny it looks like a kidney

Feel free to add your liver insults.

Having Hepatitis

Recently I visited a dear friend who has cancer and is in hospice. Her days are numbered, as the saying goes, although Woody Allen asked, "why aren't they lettered instead of numbered?" Anyway, my friend told me that the best cancer card she received was this: On the cover it said, "Cancer sucks" On the inside it read, "But it's better than being married to John Edwards."

Politics aside, what I like about the message is the concept that even with a life-threatening disease, there are worse things. So, what is worse than having hepatitis? Here are a few:
Being stuck on a bus in traffic with teenagers singing "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall."
Having Mike Tyson bite of my ear
A world without Internet and clumping cat litter
Finding out that chocolate is actually bad for you

Do you have any to add?

Liver Enhancement

I was musing over my March 25th blog, “The Heart of the Matter,” where I substituted the word liver for the word heart. I did not exhaust this subject, as there are many more expressions using the word heart. Before revisiting this, I wondered if there were liver expressions other than “What do you think, this is, chopped liver?” and “That takes gall.” So, I put the words liver and expressions in Google’s search field and got 995,000 hits. Most of them were biomedically-related.  If you want to bore yourself to cirrhosis, read about genetic expression of the liver. The first article about liver enhancers caught my eye. Wow, I thought about enhancing various body parts, but never my liver. Upon closer inspection, I read the actual title: Two Hepatic Enhancers, HCR.1 and HCR.2, Coordinate the Liver Expression of the Entire Human Apolipoprotein E/C-I/C-IV/C-II Gene Cluster. I don’t think I’m ready for that kind of enhancement just yet.

Happy April Fool's Day

April Fool’s Day is my favorite day of the year. I don’t know why it isn’t a national holiday. Can you imagine if we all had a day off to laugh and play? My goodness, that has to be a prescription for good health. My liver would be so happy it would be doing the Snoopy dance.

Have you told a joke to your liver today?