Parallels with Paul

Paul Newman died the other day. Most people I know either didn't know who he was, or vaguely remembered him for a couple of iconic films that were made a long, long time ago: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Sting. Both films debuted in the late 60's/early 70's and were the very best of their day. Even now I want to go out and rent them.

Since I was a kid I always admired and liked Paul Newman. First as a actor - I liked his characters and he made me laugh, but afterward as I got older, I liked him for the way he lived his life. A couple things stand out; he was married to his wife for 50 years, he lived his life passionately and on his terms, he was intensely private and he donated a helluva lot of money to a worthy cause - sick children. This guy's ticket to heaven was punched a long time ago.

Paul's wife, the equally talented Joanne Woodward once said, "He's very good-looking and very sexy, and all of those things," she said. "But all that goes out the window, finally, and what is left is if you can make somebody laugh, then that's what it is."

I smiled when I read those words - they brought a tear to my eye too. I'm crazy about my wife. She makes my heart skip a beat whenever I see her across a room, and I still marvel that I'm the lucky guy that gets to lay down next to her each night. Most signifant though is our laughter. Living with me is essentially a non-stop sitcom. I realized a long, long time ago I'd much rather laugh than worry or be angry about stuff. There are way too many uptight, self-centered assholes in the world including all of Congress and what is left of Wall Street's leaders. Go and buy this book: "The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't," by Robert I. Sutton. Sutton is a professor of management at Stanford and although the title is catchy, the book does have a great deal of substance.

When Newman got into car racing, he entered events under the name P.L. Newman simply because he didn't want his celebrity as a film actor to resonate on or around the track. When asked about being married to the same women for such a long time he stated simply, "Why go out for a hamburger when you can have steak at home?"

Take your job, your education, your faith and raising your kids seriously.....then leave some gas in the tank to laugh and have some fun. Life and marriage are better like that.