[From a letter to my kids]
I read somewhere that if you are asked to tell something about yourself, it is always better to say as little as possible. If there is something about you that’s worth telling, somebody else can tell it, and it will sound a whole lot better coming from them than from you.
And if you are supposed to get an award for something you’ve done, make it a point to give all the credit to someone else. Like your husband or your wife, or momma or daddy, or your teacher or boss or mentor. Like Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the sholders of Giants.” It’s especially neat if you can give the credit to the little people; like people who work for you; or your kids. If you hunt a little, you can always find the right person or people to give the credit to. If you’ll humble yourself, the Lord’s gonna lift you up. (James 4:10)
Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln (both of them) said that when you give a speech in English, use English (Anglo-Saxon) words, like hit, or run, or eat, or bite, or talk, or feel, or love, instead of long French-Latin based words like masticate, or orate, or agitate, or literate. The short words have more meaning, more impact, and they stay with you longer. In this case, as with the other, less is more.
As far as I know, the art of ‘kidding’, as taught by our forbears, is mostly the art of understatement; saying something is less than it is, just for fun and just for effect. With folks that like to talk as much as we do, it’s hard not to talk, so it really is good to use the art of understatement. As you know, I have a hard time doing it, but as I get older, I try a little more each day. It’s not so much thinking about every word you say as it is a feeling in your heart. If you humble yourself, the Lord will give you the right words to say. (1 Pet 5:6)
“We take in strays, orphans and widderwimen.” (see James 1:27)
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