If you have doubts about someone, lay on a couple of jokes. If he doesn't find anything funny, your radar should be screaming. Then I would say be patient with people who are negative, because they're really having a hard time.
Interpretation
Using humor can be a way to gauge someone's character, especially when they're struggling.
In this quote, Michael J. Fox suggests that humor can be a litmus test for assessing the positivity or negativity of a person's attitude. If someone cannot appreciate jest, it may indicate they are dealing with deeper issues, thus reminding us to exercise patience and understanding towards individuals who may be experiencing tough times.
In practice
During a team building event, to lighten the mood when tensions rise.
I find as long as I acknowledge the truth of something, then that's it. I know what it is and then I can operate. But if I overestimate the downside of something or the challenge of something and I get too obsessed about the difficulty of it, then I don't leave enough room to be open to the upside, the possibility.
My whole life, meeting people is like a blind date, because I feel like they've already seen the video on me.
There are no moments you have frozen in amber. It's moving, it's changing, so appreciate what's good about right now and be ready for what's next.
There's always failure. And there's always disappointment. And there's always loss. But the secret is learning from the loss, and realizing that none of those holes are vacuums.
Certainly people have a lot tougher situations than I've had to deal with. But I will say we are all dying from the moment we are born. This is not just rehearsal.
I'm a dad, I'm a husband, I'm an activist, I'm a writer and I'm just a student of the world.
Sometimes you have to trust people enough to let them succeed and love them enough to let them fail.
Just like children, emotions heal when they are heard and validated.
I am certain that I speak on behalf of my entire nation when I say: September 11th we are all Americans - in grief, as in defiance.
If husbands could realize what large returns of profit may be gotten out of a wife by a small word of praise paid over the counter when the market is just right, they would bring matters around the way they wish them much oftener than they usually do. Arguments are unsafe with wives, because they examine them; but they do not examine compliments. One can pass upon a wife a compliment that is three-fourths base
With cats, some say, one rule is true: Don't speak till you are spoken to.
Marriage is a career which brings about more benefits than many others.
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