I want to share a bit of my personal philosophy with you today and hopefully make you smile once or twice in the process. I’ve always felt that God endowed us with a full spectrum of emotions and as such, we are entitled to experience every one of them. Without naming them all, let me just say that during the time I’ve spent on this earth so far, I have experienced things that made me weep bitterly and things that made me laugh my ass off. Me, I prefer to laugh. I look for the humor in things, often finding it, and am not above going out of my way to get a laugh. It’s who I am. It’s what I do.

Photo opportunities can sometimes provide a laugh or a smile, depending on what you do with them. Take the three Ducati models above. I was walking around at the International Motorcycle Show in Chicago one cold day in February, when I came across these three beauties standing around a new motorcycle on a raised platform. One of them made eye contact with me as I walked toward them. I pointed to myself and then up at the ladies with my eyebrows raised questioningly. The model who had seen me smiled and waved me up. I handed my camera (this was before smart phones) to my wife and hopped onto the platform. I greeted the ladies and circled around behind the bike as they struck their respective poses. It was a fun shot. Some people don’t even notice the motorcycle right away.

This one was taken at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum down in Springfield. I’m sure plenty of people stop for a photo with the Lincoln family, but for some reason it’s funnier when I do it. Maybe that’s because people expect antics like this from me. And maybe that’s why I keep delivering.

Some things just strike me as funny and since I don’t like to laugh alone, I tend to share them with others. An oddly written or oddly placed sign, for example, might have giggling on sight.

It should come as no surprise, then, that those closest to me have a similar affinity. Indeed, the person who married me over 30 years ago claims she did so because of my ability to make her laugh.

Good heavens, our children never had a chance to become serious, glum types. They are so different from each other, personality-wise, yet each has a humorous streak a mile wide. I appreciate that.

To see the humor in everyday circumstances is a good ting, I think. Take this cucumber shot, for example. Just me and a vegetable, right? I’m not doing anything unusual here. A few days after I posted it, I was with some friends and somehow this photo came up in conversation. One friend commented, “It almost seems suggestive.”

To which I replied, “But not outwardly so? That’s exactly as I had intended it.”

Suddenly another friends lit up and exclaimed, “I knew it! I knew it!” Such are my friends.

And such is me. I don’t want to be a dark, begrudging, or angry individual. I prefer to laugh. Thanks for hanging with me.