I can’t imagine life without a sense of humor. One of the ways that I judge a company is if there is any sound of laughter, when I am in their offices. Many things in business are serious. Business is about making a profit, after all–a task which can be very, very arduous in this day and age. But, humor keeps the hunt for profit in proper perspective, and facilitates the many difficult duties that are required to be performed throughout the work day. I have had many recommendations written on my behalf over the years. But, the one sentence that sticks in my memory from all of these recommendations was the one that said, “Paul possesses a sense of humor that keeps all in balance.”  And, that’s what humor does. It keeps work—and life–in balance. “Don’t take either yourself, or the world, too seriously”, my mother said to me with an Irish twinkle in her eye shortly before she died. “If you’re not in a little ‘mischief’, you’re not having any fun”, she said., all the while cautioning me not to get into any real trouble.

Those who know me would say that I learned her lesson well. Playfulness is good.

It was reported that, after Charles Darwin completed his exhaustive Origin of the Species, he concluded that there was only one quality that separated man from the lower classes of animals. “Only man has the ability to laugh”, he said.

What a shame not to use that quality–that sense of humor, that wonderful laughter– with great gusto, and with great frequency, in our daily lives. We’d all be more “balanced”, if we did.