Thursday. That would be correct. The last day of March, the 31st. Right again. But, doesn't it seem like we just watched the countdown on TV as we changed to a brand new year? Three months in the books already? That is also correct. And, because of this fast paced life, I bid you a hurried welcome to
Thursday, March 31, 2011. That vast sucking sound you hear is not the one Ross Perot predicted about the noise that would be made by all our dollars being sucked into Mexico because of NAFTA, no, it is rather, the collective sound of us all trying to catch our breath at the same time. I am for the most part joking. We likely do not have as hard a day each day as those who preceded us. I know my grandfather was a logger for many of his early adult years. That meant going from can to can't and doing back breaking labor in between the
can and the
can't. That logging stuff was not easy. I remember a fellow I grew up with who went into the pulpwood business. One weekend when I was back home I saw him and his brand new pulpwood truck. About half of his truck was smashed. He told me the new only lasted the first few days before they dropped some logs on it. He shrugged and said it had to happen sooner or later anyway. One good thing about filling up your day? As they say back home, when it comes time for bedtime, you don't have to be rocked to sleep. My grandfather made this work ethic a tenant of his life and he believed that the good night's sleep was a part of its reward. It worked for him and thus far, I am thankful to report that it has consistently worked for me as well. And, I say Amen to that!
One of the ways to make your day go by is to find something to smile about or to enjoy an old fashioned guffaw or two. Yes, my friend, I am saying you do need to make room for some laughter in your life. I say that fully realizing that life is typically not a laughing matter but God has given us ourselves as material and surely He knew we would have plenty to laugh about. I suppose everyone enjoys a good laugh about growing old because we all hope to make it into that category. Best I can tell, no one enjoys funnies about the older generation than those who make up the older generation. Maybe it's because we in this older group are more easily confined than all those others scattered from the very young on up. One lady spotted what appeared to be an older gentleman sitting on his porch wearing a huge grin. She went over and asked what was his secret to being happy. The man replied that he ate the fattiest foods he could find, never exercised, that he smoked three packs of cigarettes a day and drank at least a case of whiskey a week. The lady was shocked. She then asked just how old the man was. His reply, twenty-eight. Now there's one that incorporates the young and the old. There's the story about the two very senior adults who were happily walking down the street as they busily made plans for their upcoming wedding. They went into a drug store and asked the attendant if that store sold medications for memory problems, something for arthritis, as well as wheelchairs and walkers. The clerk assured them they sold all of those products. The couple smiled and said, "Good, we want to open our bridal registry here." The point I am making is that we all can find something to laugh about and usually it isn't that far away. You know what I mean? It's like this: What did one eye say to the other eye? There's something between us that smells.
I actually told a joke once to a fairly large audience and it went over big time. It was not my own joke but one that I had heard the late Jerry Clower tell. But seeing all those people laugh out loud gave me some insight into the payoff that comedians seek when sharing their funny stories with others. Sadly, most, but not all, humor today is of the variety referred to as potty mouth material. To me, using that style totally destroys any genuineness to the story. Our culture has grown so coarse it is conditioned to knee jerk a laugh when nasty words are said. How in the world does that constitute anything worth laughing about? Perhaps that is the reason they tell their jokes in places where so much drinking goes on. I was listening the other day on satellite radio to Bob Hope in a big production he staged in a return to his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. His material was dated, some fifty to sixty years old, but much of it was funny, then, and funny now. He didn't need four letter words to get the crowd going. President Truman was in office when that program was recorded. Hope poked good-natured fun at the President and his family. I suppose I just don't get it. The need for all the filth. I have been told by folks that I should listen to this guy or that person because they are so funny but beware because they are pretty vulgar. No thank you. I'll just have to stay with the oldies, like this advice: Treat every day as if it is your last because if you do so, you will one day be most assuredly right. Say goodnight folks. Goodnight folks. And, may God bless us, one and all.
Amen. .....More later.
One of the ways to make your day go by is to find something to smile about or to enjoy an old fashioned guffaw or two. Yes, my friend, I am saying you do need to make room for some laughter in your life. I say that fully realizing that life is typically not a laughing matter but God has given us ourselves as material and surely He knew we would have plenty to laugh about. I suppose everyone enjoys a good laugh about growing old because we all hope to make it into that category. Best I can tell, no one enjoys funnies about the older generation than those who make up the older generation. Maybe it's because we in this older group are more easily confined than all those others scattered from the very young on up. One lady spotted what appeared to be an older gentleman sitting on his porch wearing a huge grin. She went over and asked what was his secret to being happy. The man replied that he ate the fattiest foods he could find, never exercised, that he smoked three packs of cigarettes a day and drank at least a case of whiskey a week. The lady was shocked. She then asked just how old the man was. His reply, twenty-eight. Now there's one that incorporates the young and the old. There's the story about the two very senior adults who were happily walking down the street as they busily made plans for their upcoming wedding. They went into a drug store and asked the attendant if that store sold medications for memory problems, something for arthritis, as well as wheelchairs and walkers. The clerk assured them they sold all of those products. The couple smiled and said, "Good, we want to open our bridal registry here." The point I am making is that we all can find something to laugh about and usually it isn't that far away. You know what I mean? It's like this: What did one eye say to the other eye? There's something between us that smells.
I actually told a joke once to a fairly large audience and it went over big time. It was not my own joke but one that I had heard the late Jerry Clower tell. But seeing all those people laugh out loud gave me some insight into the payoff that comedians seek when sharing their funny stories with others. Sadly, most, but not all, humor today is of the variety referred to as potty mouth material. To me, using that style totally destroys any genuineness to the story. Our culture has grown so coarse it is conditioned to knee jerk a laugh when nasty words are said. How in the world does that constitute anything worth laughing about? Perhaps that is the reason they tell their jokes in places where so much drinking goes on. I was listening the other day on satellite radio to Bob Hope in a big production he staged in a return to his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. His material was dated, some fifty to sixty years old, but much of it was funny, then, and funny now. He didn't need four letter words to get the crowd going. President Truman was in office when that program was recorded. Hope poked good-natured fun at the President and his family. I suppose I just don't get it. The need for all the filth. I have been told by folks that I should listen to this guy or that person because they are so funny but beware because they are pretty vulgar. No thank you. I'll just have to stay with the oldies, like this advice: Treat every day as if it is your last because if you do so, you will one day be most assuredly right. Say goodnight folks. Goodnight folks. And, may God bless us, one and all. Amen. .....More later.
No comments:
Post a Comment