Smiles and jokes, smiles and jokes: that is/was the way of so many of our greatest Torah leaders, and that is the recipe for so many of us to a life of a positive relationship with Hashem. For so many of us, the "frumme" ("religious") negativity, over-seriousness, and "heaviness" (and depression and anxiety...) is nothing more than a trick and trap of the yeitzer hara, that wants to turn serving Hashem into a burden and a pressure, with a "gun to the head" and a cruel dictator and policeman ready to give a smack for the smallest thing that we didn’t really even do wrong. Yeitzer hara! Yeitzer hara!
If a life of "doom and gloom" and "stifling" somehow brings you calmness and joy and a healthier connection to Hashem (don’t ask me how...), go for it. But for all the rest of us: just eat ice cream!
