Forrest Gump&8217;s momma needed a good laugh &8212; a good, deep &8220;belly laugh.&8221;

Mrs. Gump&8217;s homespun wisdom was featured prominently in the 1994 film &8220;Forrest Gump.&8221;

In the film, the title character told a stranger, &8220;Momma always says there&8217;s an awful lot you could tell about a person by their shoes. Where they&8217;re going. Where they&8217;ve been.&8221;

The filmmaker and scriptwriter &8212; perhaps the novelist, too, I never read the book &8212; then go on to use Gump&8217;s &8220;shoes&8221; to show the changes in his life.

From the &8220;magic shoes&8221; as his mother referred to his corrective shoes and leg braces, to hit cleats at the University of Alabama, filmgoers see Gump grow up. Then, after college, his footwear reflects more life changes &8212; Army boots, shrimp boots and ultimately running shoes.

Momma Gump&8217;s logic has always seemed dead-on. She was absolutely correct; shoes can speak volumes.

Almost since the film first came out, I&8217;ve found myself jumping feet-first into Mrs. Gump&8217;s logic.

I take a peek at folks&8217; shoes from time to time for an unusual, but almost always accurate, glimpse into the wearer&8217;s life.

But Mrs. Gump apparently didn&8217;t realize a beautifully alternate approach to staring at feet &8212; listening to laughter.

A friend recently referred to a good laugh as a &8220;belly laugh.&8221; At the time I didn&8217;t give her comment much thought, but over the last couple of weeks, it&8217;s become part of a Gump-like spectrum of laughter.

The truth is how you laugh says quite a bit about how you think of the situation and about how comfortable you are in laughing in a given situation.

Obviously, the situation often dictates how much we can &8220;let go.&8221;

No matter how funny something is in church, for example, snorting and cackling out loud is rarely a good option. Although God has a sense of humor &8212; look at me &8212; the minister or the people in the nearby pews may not have brought theirs.

Sometimes, however, the people nearby affect our propensity for hijinks. In general, we&8217;re much less apt to laugh like a hyena around strangers than among friends.

But in spite of the possibility of the &8220;church effect&8221; examining a person&8217;s laughter can offer revealing insight into their psyche.

Here are a few &8220;kinds&8221; of laughter you might notice in your friends and family members.

The Reserved Chuckle: These are the folks who simply cannot let their hair down. They worry way too much about keeping a good &8220;face&8221; on. They&8217;ll laugh even when the joke or story is not terribly funny. They&8217;re kind and respectful, but you&8217;ve got to wonder if they ever really lose control.

The Silent Side-splitters: You&8217;ve seen one of these. They start out as a reserved chuckler, then begin to let loose, tears of joy pour forth as the noises of fun turn to nearly imperceptible murmurs of amusement. These folks are not quite as stuffy &8212; even in formal groups &8212; as the Reserved Chucklers, but they still fear PDULs &8212; that&8217;s public displays of uncontrollable laughter.

The Belly Laugh: No holds barred, outrageously funny release of joy. No worries about messing up your hair, your make-up or your public image, the &8220;funny&8221; outweighs anything else. Eyes roll back, head bobs and belly jiggles. Belly Laughers are generally open and honest.

They&8217;re 100 percent comfortable with themselves and they don&8217;t mind letting everyone in the room know. The great part about the Belly Laughers is that their fun is generally highly infectious. How can you not join in the fun when a Belly Laugher cracks up over something silly?

So go out this week and have a good belly laugh. If you don&8217;t, you&8217;ll prove Mrs. Gump was also correct when she said, &8220;Stupid is as stupid does.&8221;

Kevin Cooper

is associate publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or

kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com

.