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Spirit of Humor

By Allen Klein

My mom, who is ninety-years-old, uses a van service to take her back and forth from her doctor's appointment. One day, she was the last patient in the doctor's office. It was six o'clock and the van did not show up to take her home. The doctor informed her that she could not wait in the his office because he had a meeting to attend. He said he would take her downstairs to a pizza place next door where she could wait for the van. He would even call them and make sure they were coming.

When the van still didn't show up, my mom went over to the counter and asked the guy making the pizza if they deliver.

"Of course, we do," he replied. "What would you like?"

"I'd like a mushroom pizza," she responded, "and I'd like to go with it!"

In another incident, which happened many years before this, my mom decided to return to the work force. She found a part-time job fielding phone complaints for a kitchen appliances company. Her career, however, was short lived.

On her second day, my mother got a call from an irate customer whose dishwasher had broken down in the midst of preparing an elegant champagne dinner for her new fiancée and ten special guests.

"Don't worry", my mother told the caller, "just use paper plates!"

Humor doesn't necessarily solve a situation but it does make it easier to bear. Keeping the spirit of humor in mind no matter what happens helps us rise above any situation so that we don't get so stressed out about it.

My mom taught me this life-saving strategy well. While writing my first book, I bought an upgrade for my computer program. Anxious to use it, I wrote steadily for several hours, then mistakenly pressed the wrong key and erased everything I had just written.

In the midst of my upset, the phone rang and a friend asked how the writing was going.

"I'm no longer a writer," I replied, "I'm now an eraser."

Allen Klein is an award-winning professional speaker and best-selling author. Klein's books include The Healing Power of Humor,* The Courage to Laugh,* and Quotations to Cheer You Up.* For more information about his programs, he can be reached at allenklein@aol.com