Laughter could be heard throughout the Wilkinson Center on Friday as an associate professor of English at BYU addressed a large audience as part of this week's Annual Women's Conference.

The Wilkinson Center ballroom more than exceeded its 2,000-seat limitation as women filed into the auditorium from a line that began outside Jamba Juice and extended past the Bookstore.

"We need to laugh!" exclaimed Shauna Derbyshire, who hailed from Cheyenne, Wyo. to hear Louise Plummer and other speakers at this week's conference.

Derbyshire and the women around her waited in line for over two hours to hear the earlier ballroom sessions of the conference, hoping to keep their seats for Plummer's 2 p.m. address.

When asked why the group was so anxious to hear Plummer, Derbyshire quickly replied, "We lead stressful lives and we need relief."

Derbyshire and others also knew that Plummer would make good on the promise contained in the title of the session, "A Time to Laugh."

Plummer announced that she would speak on "how to have more humor in your life." Aside from her hysterical anecdotes, Plummer offered insights into the role humor has played in her life.

"Humor is the ability to see what is comical or funny and makes us laugh even in times of stress," Plummer said. "It makes us work better together and frees us to be more creative. It pulls us up and lightens our burdens."

Plummer noted the power and the ability humor has to change attitudes and perspectives.

"Humor releases us, how briefly, from our deepest fear and shame. It is a collision of what we desire with what we get," she said.

The session's second speaker, Emily Watts, an assistant director of publishing at Deseret Book, addressed humor in its relation to pride.

"There's a time to laugh," Watts said. "Pride keeps us from laughing and laughing keeps us from pride."

Throughout her address, Watts shared a number of comical situations that she has been faced with where she has had to make a decision of whether to be humiliated or simply laugh it off.

"Pride makes us embarrassed and laughter makes us human," Watts said.

Though the situations she described were comical in nature, Watts closed by bearing her personal testimony of the power of laughter.

"The Lord loves a cheerful heart," she said. "Cultivate that mentality and you will draw closer to him."



Copyright Brigham Young University 7 May 2003