I used to think that the deepest form of connection was the reciprocal baring of souls.
But this is a deeply flawed metric. It’s surprisingly easy to open up and tell all to someone that you believe that you’ll never see again – it’s much harder to do that when you genuinely care about the reaction.
I’m increasingly convinced that the true depth of connection is measured by laughter – deep, addictive belly laughs of the ROFL type. The type of guffawing that, like an earthquake, sends periodic aftershocks long after the moment itself is over. The type that you just cannot hold in, no matter how inappropriate the situation is.
Being able to laugh together – and of course, to admit what it is that you find funny in the first place – requires just as much vulnerability as traditional soul-baring, if not more. In fact, it is another form of it – what we laugh about reveals a lot about who we are.
And it’s far more effective. After all, at the end of the day, who would you rather be around – the one that you laugh with, or the one that you cry with?