Welcome to a rib tickling good time!

It time for Thursday’s tiptoeing through the tulips on this, the 4th day of September 2008. Thanks to those who have inquired about my rib cage difficulty. According to the last report from Dr. Self Diagnosis, the injury has been downgraded from a hairline fracture to a bruise. The pain is still very noticeable but the patient no longer has to immediately stand up when he coughs. Based on longstanding medical insights, this development, in and of itself, speaks of an improved condition. I will tell you this: when I did what I did to bring about this problem, while I did not hear the audible voice of God, I did sense that He was perhaps saying, “Why not try that one more time since you did such a good job the first go around!” Even though it hurt I couldn’t keep myself from an immediate outburst of chagrined laughter at my own foolishness.

Such is life. Five steps forward and three back. We can live with the three back but it gets really tough when it becomes five forward but six back. A number of folks have expressed some very close association with this incident as it relates to their own personal experience. That’s great news because it means maybe I’m not the only one and maybe I’m not becoming a disgruntled old dude! I’ve always feared becoming one of those ‘nattering nabobs of negativism’. That was the phrase coined by Vice President Spiro Agnew as he angrily took on the news media that were dogging him and President Nixon’s every step. Nattering means to talk or chatter in an idle fashion. Nabob has to do with prominence or elitism, perhaps implying self-importance, and we all know what being negative is all about. Whatever, I’ve always thought the phrase to be interesting but certainly would not want it to be said about me.

In the end we hopefully take seriously the lessons we need to learn while at the same time seeing the funny side in our own mishaps. Seeing the funny is not always easy and at times it can be downright fuzzy. Back in 1972 a singer named Donna Fargo came out with a song that surprisingly made it to number 5 on the charts. This song has always puzzled me. Here are some of the main lyrics: “Funny face I love you; Funny face I need you; My whole world is wrapped up in you.” I never really understood that song and it was played often. I suppose she had a funny looking significant other and her love for the funny looking fellow was what the song was trying to communicate. This makes me thankful that my wife laughs with me instead of at me as we continue this ‘funny’ journey together. Come to think about it, I believe I was voted the wittiest one year back in high school. See there. I had some funny stuff going on even way back then. I’ll close today’s blog with the sign off I remember hearing often from many years ago. (It was on NBC and we were only able to pick up this one channel.) They began using this sign off in the late 1950’s and it became the signature of the famous Huntley/Brinkley Nightly Newscast: “Goodnight Chet, …. Goodnight David.” May God bless. ….More later.