Monday, January 2, 2012

Love Well. Laugh Often

Today was the funeral for my Uncle John Buss. The service was really good. John's pastor shared from the heart and it was meaningful. On the way to the cemetery, the Central Fire District (which John helped start) was along the roadside with a "Thanks John" sign. Pretty cool.

The thing I will value most from my uncle's life is to not take things too seriously. I feel like every time my family and his visited, he had a new joke for my dad.

So I remember one joke in particular John was telling my dad. I remember it really well. I was in 2nd grade at the time.

It went something like this:

There was a guy at the mall around Christmas time and as he walked by the pet store, he noticed a large crowd. He stopped to see what was going on and the pet store owner said, "You have to see Chet the singing parrot!" So the guy went in to scope it out and sure enough, if Chet had a match lit under his left leg he would sing "Silent Night". So the man grew curious, "What would happen if you lit the match under his right leg," he asked the pet owner, who decided to try it and Chet began singing "Jingle Bells." Amazed, the guy suggested, what would happen if we lit the match under both of his legs? The owner tried and the parrot began singing, "Chets nuts roasting on an open fire."

As an innocent 2nd Grader I laughed because thats what all the adults were doing. Soon after that at school, I was waiting for dismissal with a couple other kids and my 2nd grade teacher Miss King. They were exchanging jokes, so I chimed in...qualifying it by saying, I don't really get it...but here it goes...I delivered it to a T...and Miss King, like the other adults laughed pretty hard.

I don't remember if I told my mom that I told that joke to Miss King or if Miss King mentioned it to my mom...but that may have been the moment my mom lost control of me in parenting.

In 2011 he celebrated 50 years of marriage with my Aunt Judy. (This might be a greater testament to my Aunt Judy, depending on how you rated the above joke!) John was a good man.

We found out that a few days before he died, he shared that he wanted his miracle to go to Chaia. The family even asked for contributions to be made to Chaia's Benevolent Fund in lieu of flowers. (Thanks Buss family!)

Love well. Laugh often.

And don't tell pg-13 jokes to your 2nd grade teacher.

Advice and an example to live by.

5 comments:

Jackie Thompson said...

I never had control, but love you snyway. :o)

Jackie Thompson said...

I never had control, but love you snyway. :o)

Anonymous said...

I can imagine Miss King's reaction to that. I once called her Grandma, and she took it all in stride. :)

Our condolences for your uncle.

God bless,
Mindy

Todd Buss said...

You are lucky to remember one of his few jokes that were actually rated pg-13.

Anonymous said...

I was familiar with your Uncle John because he would bring in the church deposits to our branch. Did not realize the connection until now. Very nice man, we will miss seeing him.