To Laugh and Wonder May Be Enough

by Keith Norbury, Saanich News

When he was a lad in Britain attending a public school, "an elite private institution where they hit you a lot," Martin Collis was often told to "wipe that stupid smile off your face."

He didn't. Probably couldn't.

It was still there, decades later, wide as a wedge cut out of a round of cheese, one Sunday morning at a Victoria restaurant.

He's Dr. Collis now, of the University of Victoria. He had come to motivate us. At least, he was presented as an internationally renowned motivational speaker.

His crowd consisted of community newspaper reporters and editors from all over Vancouver Island, who at this particular moment were not necessarily well. We had gathered for a conference with the aim of helping us make the papers more relevant to you, the readers. The free beer had nothing to do with our attendance.

For two days, we had endured presentations by journalism experts who pointed out our grammatical foibles and faults with our foci. Then, at the end, along came Dr. Collis - a physiologist by training whose specialty is "wellness" - to convince us we weren't that inadequate after all.

"Humph," you're no doubt muttering. "You obviously didn't learn a damn thing. What possible relevance does a presentation by a University professor have to my life?"

Absolutely none - if your life is perfect, you strive for no further self-improvement, you have no interest in learning anything wise, and you have no use for a good laugh.

Otherwise, what Dr. Collis taught us has great relevance to your life, because it is the stuff of life. It would be relevant, even if he has it all wrong. His attempt, his way of teaching, is relevant in itself. He entertained us, he educated us. He made us laugh, almost made us cry sometimes.

He told great jokes explaining that laughter was a reflexive survival device which had helped keep the species going for aeons.

Yet in entertaining us, Collis delivered strong messages.

And Martin Collis battles boredom. He assaults it head-on, with a guitar. El Ka-Bong!!

Collis confessed to us that he used to make typical academic presentations with charts and slide projectors and millions of statistics to support his finely crafted theories. He realized though that this method put people to sleep.

It dawned on him that stories make a far greater impact on an audience than statistics do. Audiences respond to stories and in responding they lap up the messages.

So Collis began his presentation by reciting a poem and as he spoke my mind kept saying over and over again, "What the hell is this?"

But he kept smiling, that wide smile. And it made me smile back.

Sensing perhaps that this audience of professional cynics were determined to crack that smile, Collis grabbed his guitar. And he sang a marvellous ballad about lecturers and their slide projectors.

"He was boring
Never a laugh
We were snoring
He showed us graph after graph
I couldn't understand half..."

Now that he had our attention, he could proceed to manipulate our minds, compelling us to consider, if not just blindly accept, his opinions of how to live healthy, prosperous lives.

That sort of talent has traditionally been preserved for the likes of Buddha, Confucius, Christ, Muhammad, and L. Ron Hubbard. But let's make it clear, this wasn't a formal religious presentation unless it was about finding that god within you. Martin noted that the word 'enthusiasm' comes from the Greek 'entheos' literally meaning 'having a God within'.

In general Collis stuck to the secular, the down to earth. He passed along an acronym to live by: MELLOW. It stands for mind, exercise, laughter, love, optimal nutrition and wonder.

Well, I left with wonder, and you know, that's enough in itself.