RURAL LEADERSHIP 



Just as food, however well cooked, fails to appeal to the 

 taste unless it has been properly seasoned, so life itself proves 

 to be savorless unless there is injected into it something of 

 the spice and pungency that only a sense of humor can give. 

 The part that the sense of humor has played in world history 

 is no inconspicuous part. Civilization's debt to the sense of 

 humor is far greater than the world suspects. The following 

 little poem shows what the sense of humor has to encounter 

 constantly : 



Nothing to do but work, 

 Nothing to eat but food, 

 Nothing to wear but clothes, 

 To keep one from going nude. 

 Nothing to breathe but air, 

 Quick as a flash 'tis gone; 

 Nowhere to fall but off, 

 Nowhere to stand but on. 

 Nothing to comb but hair, 

 Nowhere to sleep but in bed, 

 Nothing to weep but tears, 

 Nothing to bury but dead. 

 Nothing to sing but songs, 

 Ah, well ! alas ! alack ! 

 Nowhere to go but out, 

 Nowhere to come but back; 

 Nothing to see but sights, 

 Nothing to quench but thirst, 

 Nothing to have but what we've got; 

 Thus, through life we are cursed. 

 Nothing to strike but a gait, 

 Everything moves that goes; 

 Nothing at all but common sense, 

 Can ever withstand these woes. 



Blessed is the man or woman who possesses a sense of 

 humor, because with it these woes and others can be with- 

 stood; without it life is a "vale of tears," "an empty vessel," 

 and all the other sad things found in some of the old hymns. 



in 



