 -
- LET'S SAY that your wife has accepted a
dinner engagement for the two of you, and that
it happens to be at the Smith's, who without a
doubt are the stuffiest, most boring hosts you
have the displeasure of knowing. But you go,
brother, you go! And it's not going to be your
fault if, in the midst of the customary
after-dinner stalemate of conversation, you find
yourself yawning profusely, to the express
dismay of your wife and the hostess, both of
whom have caught you in the act.
-
- Now let's say that you are an habitual movie
goer and your favorite actor is appearing in a
blood and thunder show at your local theater.
You arrive just before the prices change for the
evening performance-you and three hundred other
fans! The usher informs you that you will have
to wait in line with the others until the second
show begins. Well, you've come this far, and
even if your feet do hurt, you are stubborn
enough :to wait in the poorly ventilated,
overcrowded lobby. As you wait, you yawn
continuously.
-
- Once more, let's assume that you had been so
busy at the office that you completely forgot
about eating lunch. That evening, as your wife
greets you at the door of your home, you waste
no time informing her that you are
famished.
-
- In the process of the narration, you yawn
repeatedly. Your wife is angry with you because
you are not as enthusiastic about seeing her as
you were twenty-odd years ago, but you can't
help yawning to her face-you're just tired and
hungry.
-
- I have just illustrated the most common,
most fertile environments for the occurrence of
a yawn - boredom, fatigue, hanker and poor
ventilation.
-
- Many psychologists will tell you that
yawning is no moreless than a reflex action and
a member in good standing of the famous family
of reflexes that includes the kneerk, withdrawal
of the hand from contact with a hot object,
blinking when Junior throws a sponge ball
squarely at your face, and many others.
-
- Because yawning is, then, a reflex action,
it occurs for the most part without your
conscious thought. Had you any control over it,
do you think you would have yawned right at the
moment when the hostess and your wife both had
their eyes on you? Of course, some people can
actually plan a yawn in advance to meet a
certain situation. Unquestionably, Ethel
Barrymore, Hedy Lamarr and Lou Costello all have
this ability. But most of us have neither the
occasion to put on a yawn nor the training to
stage a reasonable facsimile of the same.
-
- No doubt, you have often been in a group of
people and experienced the ludicrous sensation
of watching a yawn pass contagiously from'. one
person to another, yourself included. This
"community" type of yawn is explained away by
the power of suggestion or association, but it
is still a reflex action, garnished perhaps by a
few complications that meaii nothing so far as
this discussion is concerned. If you are a
Doubting Thomas and are inclined to minimize the
power of suggestion, just test the theory
yourself. Take this moment right now to think
about yawning-concentrate hard. If you are
perfectly fair about the test, you will probably
find yourself in the midst of a yawn. You see,
the suggestion alone may well prove father to
the act!
-
- What goes on when you yawn? As a matter of
fact, you are gulping in a surplus of air,
giving your lungs a rare and much appreciated
treat. How do you know it's appreciated? Well,
when you get right down to analyzing the
sensation, you must admit that yawning is
thoroughly enjoyable. You feel a real tone-up at
the completion of the ad, thereby proving that
Nature is pretty wise, after all, because she
has designed yawning with the idea in mind of
providing just such a tone-up.
-
- We can thank the early AngloSaxons for
giving a name to this pleasant reflex action. If
they hadn't devised the picturesque "ganian,"
which meant to open the mouth broadly, or gape,
there's no telling what yawning might have been
called :by the time it arrived at the twentieth
century.
-
- Speaking about the twentieth century, it is
interesting to note that despite the mass of
medical information available today, there is
little to be found on the subject of yawning.
This is understandable because, pathologically
speaking,the act is seldom significant. While
there are certain facts connected with yawning
that a physician would consider in a diagnosis,
for general purposès yawning has been
given to man to help him adjust himself to an
unfavorable environment, whether it be internal,
as in the case of hunger for food or air, or
external, as it may be suggested by boredom, or
emotional fatiguerecall the visit to the
Smith's?
-
- If you thoroughly enjoy your yawn, think
nothing more about it -unless of course, your
particular style of rendering the act is
socially offensive. In that case, only Emily
Post can help you.
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