I grew up surrounded by humor. My dad was quite creative, starting and running a one-man advertising agency in Tulsa, Oklahoma, winning advertising awards and becoming a bit famous in some circles.
He taught my brother and I to appreciate all forms of humor. He would drive me nuts asking, “What’s funny about that?” throughout the day. He told stories that had funny endings, or told so that you could picture the action so strongly you rolled on the floor with laughter. He drew funny or clever pictures. He constantly made jokes, made puns, played with the English language. He was sarcastic, snide, and one of the most caring people I’ve ever known.
He used humor as a protection against hard things in life and taught us to do the same. To this day, if I can stand back and see the humor in a situation, it calms me down, makes me smile, and allows me to handle things better. I miss him so much, but I can almost FEEL him looking down at me, saying, “Lighten up, Lin.”
This is our ‘flying pig’ that used to hang over our driveway until the pig and the huge branch from which it hung came down in an ice storm. The pig is sitting on my table in our shop now, waiting for me to refurbish it. I’m hoping to convince my husband that he would look fine bolted onto one of the huge boulders at the top of our driveway, looking as it he’s taking off in flight.