A little dose of humanity (#solTuesday)

This is one of my favorite quotes:

Laughter is the virus that infects us with humanity. – Luis Alberto Urrea

Here is a little recent example of why I think this quote is gold:

Take, if you will, two small-town Colorado ladies, plop them right in the middle of an unknown area of New York City, and hesitantly walk them over multiple blocks crowded with confident locals, various vendors, and countless other sights and *ahem* smells. Coming from the Teachers College, these ladies are predictably loaded down with multiple teacher bags, and they are attempting to keep a close (but not too obvious) eye on the navigation at hand. Add to this mix one older man walking down the same street, easily parting his way through the crowds, and pulling a big black rectangular speaker behind him on a wire cart. The song that’s base-ily blasting out of the speaker is bounce-worthy to say the least. He is greeted by name, high fives, and shout-outs from fellow street-occupiers. Seeing the smiles spreading among everyone else, and especially the woman in the purple tracksuit who just stepped out of the hair salon and who is bouncing and singing along with the colorful lyrics, the two Colorado ladies’ nerves are instantly lightened. How can you not giggle at this situation? No longer is this an uncomfortable scene. This is the magic of a little laughter breaking the proverbial ice and lowering any perceived barriers between humans. Besides – who among us couldn’t imagine having the luxury and the joy of publicly bopping our way down our street to the encouragement of our very own theme song?