On Friday 29 November, Mr Pearce addressed pupils on cheerfulness, specifically in the face of adversity.



Reading | Proverbs 17:22: A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

A question for you this morning: what does a clown in a hospital, a Royal Marine, a jelly bean, and a Christmas light have in common? Here it is again: what does a clown in a hospital, a Royal Marine, a jelly bean, and a Christmas light have in common?

I read an article recently which might surprise you. Our Bible reading today told us that “a cheerful heart is good medicine”, and I was surprised to see an article in The Week with an almost identical title: Laughter is an effective medicine. Let me read you an excerpt:

Having clowns visit seriously ill children in hospital can speed up their recovery time, say researchers. The scientists tracked 51 children aged two to 18 who had spent time in hospital with pneumonia. Some of the children just had standard care; the others had also been visited by a clown twice daily during their first 48 hours in hospital, with each visit lasting 15 minutes. …the clowns sought to relax the children using humour, music, singing.... The study found that the children who saw the clowns were discharged considerably earlier than ones who were not visited… They needed less time on intravenous antibiotics… their heart rates were lower, and they had fewer inflammatory markers. 

A cheerful heart, it seems, really is good medicine. I then read of a separate study into the healing effects of laughter: researchers found that you can relieve the symptoms of certain medical conditions if, over an eight-week period, you spend 5 minutes, four times a day, repeating absurd phrases such as "hee hee hee”, “hah hah hah”, or – and I’m quoting directly from the medical research here – “cheese cheese cheese”. I don’t know how they came up with the idea for this second study, but I can only think that the doctors’ planning meeting was invaded by one of the clowns from the first study. 

Just in case you’re beginning to suspect this talk of “cheerful hearts” is all rather fluffy, a little bit “Disney”, I should tell you that the focus on cheerfulness is not unique to clowns: the Royal Marines are big on this too. I wonder if you knew that one of the Royal Marines’ mottos is “Cheerfulness in the face of adversity”; for all their obvious focus on courage and physical toughness, they also talk about “making humour the heart of morale”. Major Ben Richardson spent 20 years with the Royal Marines facing “adversity” – or to give ‘adversity’ it’s more common name, “difficult and challenging stuff”. Major Richardson led troops in Iraq and Afghanistan; he also won the Commando Medal, which is awarded for four key qualities: courage, determination, unselfishness – and yes: cheerfulness in the face adversity. When the chips are down; when the night darkens; when the problems close in; when your transport doesn’t turn up and you have to walk an extra 10 miles – commandos will tell you that very often, it’s cheerfulness in the face of adversity that keeps the team going, boosts morale, and improves problem-solving and operational effectiveness. 

Now, there might not be many of you planning on a career in the marines, or, for that matter, as a professional clown. So why might you care about all this?

Because a cheerful heart is good medicine for us all. Our adversity may not be a military operation in harsh conditions, but it might well be a nasty piece of homework, a falling out among friends, a poorly loved one, or a cold and rainy loss on the sports pitch or the river… and we need to know that a cheerful heart is good medicine anytime, anywhere. 

You might be amazed at the cheerful power of you, being the one in your group who simply makes the most of small joys – cheerfulness in the face of adversity is about celebrating that dry pair of socks buried deep in your DoE kit bag; producing that bag of jelly beans at just the right moment in a revision session with friends; making that cup of tea when it’s most needed; noticing that one funny thing against the gloomy background. Cheerfulness in the face of adversity is about a kind word to a comrade as you roll up your own sleeves. 

“Yes”, you might say “but in those moments, how am I supposed to cheer others up when I don’t feel cheerful myself?!”

But don’t you see that’s the point? Cheerfulness in the face of adversity – like love itself – is not so much a feeling or an emotion; it’s a decision, a deliberate act that we undertake in service of others, because your cheerfulness in tough times doesn’t only build others up: very often, you’ll find, it creates a rising tide that ends up lifting you as well. And in those times when acting cheerfully really is beyond you, you can be grateful for the medicine of someone else’s cheerful heart – the person, perhaps, who put the Christmas lights up on the gate to the Chapel, a light in the darkness each morning as you trudge in through gloom and the frost. 

And this cheerfulness is something I see every day in you as pupils as I move about our school. It’s one of the brilliant things about working in this school, so let me end by saying thank you. Thank you, for your cheerfulness; thank you, you jellybean bringers; thank you, you noticers of funny things; you sayers of encouraging words: I hope you know the power of your cheerful heart in lifting the spirits of the whole room. Clowns in hospital; Royal Marines; jelly beans and Christmas lights - A cheerful heart is good medicine. Let me end with another verse from the Bible, from Thessalonians: "Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."