By
Jeff Justice, CSPThere was a country-western song about looking for love in all the wrong places. There’s almost no bad place to look for laughs. The workplace is stressful and a great place to catch people doing something good — most of the time, managers look to catch them doing something wrong.
I spoke at a meeting and during the break I was getting a drink of water outside. One employee told me, “Doing a good job around this place is like wetting your pants in a dark suit. It gives you a nice, warm feeling, but nobody else seems to notice!”
I got it right this time, marrying Diane, who has a great sense of humor. We got married later in life, and she sent out wedding invitations under her mom’s name: “Ms. Patricia Byron Pfeifer finally announces….” On our honeymoon my curiosity got the best of me. I said to Diane, “Just tell me this: I know you’re 37, but is there any chance that I was your first?” And she said, “Well, you could have been — you look familiar.” I gotta love a lady like that!
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success.”