I sat is a tense meeting last night.
The hall was packed with dissatisfied, even angry people.
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There was standing room only.
Someone found a chair for my frail friend. A baby grizzled in his pram.
The chairman spoke into this electric atmosphere and said something that my (quirky) brain interpreted as amusing and I laughed quietly. My response, though small, made him look up from his notes and smile. He was grateful I suppose that someone in this critical audience had 'got' the intended pun he had purposefully used.
In that pause there was a ripple of laughter, caused mostly by his surprised face, and the atmosphere was changed....
The aggression was broken and people physically relaxed hunched shoulders and settled into their chairs. Smiles were exchanged and the audience relaxed even though the reasons for us meeting together had not changed.
We do not learn much in a tense atmosphere.
Think of arguments in the home, between husband and wife, or a parent and teenager. Each person cannot see past the fact that they are RIGHT and the other person is wrong.
The fraught atmosphere does not lead to useful discussion and a solution to whatever the problem is, whether it is a biscuit before supper for a whining toddler or a late night pass for a teenager.
We do not learn much in a tense angry atmosphere. People who are demanding immediate solutions and are thwarted often allow the situation to lead to violence. We have heard how normally rational decent people can be fueled into behaving badly especially when the protagonists are masterful, colourful, energetic and totally dedicated to their cause. Reason often leaves the building leaving behind a bubbling cauldron of dissatisfaction.
In a negative atmosphere whether in a private conversation or a public meeting the individual becomes defensive, brittle as glass, tears lurk and angry threats come out of mouths that if the atmosphere were different, would NEVER have been said out loud.
'I hate you' has often been said out of total frustration. Even the words, 'I'll kill you.'
Those dread full words mean one thing in the heat of an emotionally charged situation, but something entirely different when presented in a cold heartless courtroom, as EVIDENCE.
In the meeting I attended last night, one small laugh changed the atmosphere. As others got the memo that it was indeed okay to laugh out loud even when the situation was dire, we were no longer fueled by anger, we relaxed a little and were ready to look for solutions.
The chairman spoke words of encouragement for us as a community to work together no matter our political, racial or religious differences.
A wandering microphone was produced so that everyone who wanted to be heard had an opportunity to do so.
Because the anger had fizzled out, the audience was eager to hear the ideas of several people. Good ideas were greeted with clapping and poorly thought out ones, with silence.
Good manners prevailed.
There was even good natured banter as the mike was passed down the line to someone being urged to speak up.
The energy in that hall lifted from doom to hope
The spark?
One laugh.