See Also:
Beginning of a FAMOUS Hero: The Bob Hope Story.
Life Lesson #70 – Keep Entertainment in Perspective.
Jimmy was always smiling. He was everybody’s friend and a good student in school. But there was one little problem. Jimmy liked being the class clown. Whatever the teacher had to say, he always had some funny comment to make. He was never disrespectful. He just cracked jokes and made funny faces. He could also sit with a perfectly straight face and wiggle his ears! That cracked everybody up. They just couldn’t HELP liking Jimmy and laughing at his silly tricks.
Well, a new school year had begun, and Mrs. Mixon had already realized that Jimmy was going to be her class clown this year. One day she asked Jimmy to stay and HELP her with some things while the rest of the class went to music. Of course, he was happy to HELP.
When the others had gone, she said, “Jimmy, I really do need your HELP. I don’t think you would ever intentionally be hurtful, but that is kind of what you are doing in my class.” He didn’t know what to say.
The teacher began to explain, “Jimmy, when you are busy doing funny things that make others in the class look at you instead of paying attention to the lesson, you are actually hurting them.”
“I never thought of it like that,” Jimmy said sadly. “You have a great personality,” said Mrs. Mixon, “and a real talent for making others laugh, and that is wonderful, but you need to learn to use it in the right way at the right time. If you do that, then you’ll actually be a HERO because you will make other people happier (at more appropriate times, of course) and let them have a better chance at learning, too.” Jimmy agreed, and that’s exactly what he did.
– Jim Lord