Betty White was a wonderful comedienne. She could make us laugh with her St. Olaf stories. She had a great outlook on life. She loved animals and she didn’t pull any punches when it came to telling it like it is. I have always admired her for a number of reasons. She had a beautiful smile that would light up a room the minute she entered. She played characters that were naive, innocent and peppered with just enough sarcasm to set us back on our heels. Living for 99 years, she must’ve carried a lot of wisdom in that mind of hers. She also had a loving heart and supported causes that many wouldn’t. Her philosophy on life was to keep busy, mind your own business and don’t worry so much about others.

I often worry about not saying the right thing – about offending someone with what I do say – giving the wrong impression. Because of that, I often find myself hiding behind a mask. I am learning with age, however, what is necessary to get through this part of my life without falling into a constant state of depression. Those negative feelings are not only contagious, but they can eat away at your very existence. My answer to the age-old process of growing old is to not do it. It’s overrated. Just kidding! Life is worth living. Every second of it can be an adventure or a journey through the pits of hell. I prefer the adventure.

We’ve become a generation of people who sweat the small stuff. We used to laugh at ourselves and our shortcomings. Now we’re worried about being bullied or bullying someone else. A good case in point on that issue. My husband was teaching an after-school art class to elementary students. He had a small space in the cafeteria. While trying to set up his tiny area, a few teachers were on a mission to post “Don’t Be A Bully,” signs in his space. They virtually pushed him out of the way to get their signs on the wall. Hmm,

Our concern for stepping on other’s toes has morphed into a lack of communication. We used to problem solve through discussion. Meetings were held in person – not on a screen. Body language was a good indicator of how someone really felt about something. Those arts have stolen some of our common sense. We’ve also lost some of our nonsense through the new millennium. Betty White lived almost a hundred years. She was witness (as I have been) to massive changes in the way we do things. The thing that has heled us survive through all of time, is a good sense of humor. Let’s never lose track of how important humor is to our wellbeing.

I’m certain that God placed that sense in us, along with our abilities to see, hear, smell, touch and taste. It’s just as important as the rest of the senses. If you lose one, the others have to overcompensate. So, my advice to you today is taken from Betty’s mother who told her, “The older you get the better you get . . . unless you’re a banana.” That makes perfect sense to me.