A sense of humor can bring happiness to family life, since laughing together is a way to connect. And a good sense of humor also can make kids cleverer, healthier, and better able to deal with difficulties, because a good sense of humor is not just about telling jokes, but about the response(反应) to things in a creative and funny way. It means you can see things from different sides and in different ways.

Most of us may think humor is like our black hair or big feet. We have it since we are born. But a sense of humor is a completely learned quality（品质）that can be developed in kids, not something they’re born with.

Kids, especially young kids may not understand what humor is, but you can do something funny to make them laugh. For example, you can put on a stupid hat and run after a 3-year-old boy, or pretend(假装) to carelessly fall into a river to make a first-grader laugh. As kids grow up, these things may be boring. But you can share some jokes as their sense of what’s funny grows better.

Kids with a well-developed sense of humor are happier. They have the ability to find what’s amusing in others. They can also deal with differences(their own or others’)well. Kids who can enjoy and share humor are better liked by their friends and more able to go through hard times in childhood—from moving to a new town, to going to a new school. A good sense of humor is a skill that kids can use in their whole life to help them enjoy the funny parts of life, and not take themselves too seriously.

When I was nine, my father first sent me flowers. On that day, my school was holding its yearly dancing performance. As a member of the beginners, I knew I couldn’t get much attention. So it was a surprise to have my name called out at the end of the show along with the lead dancers and to find my arms full of red roses. I can still feel myself standing on that stage, blushing and looking out at the audience below, seeing my father’s smile as he clapped his hands loudly.

As the years passed, other occasions-birthdays, awards, graduations-were marked with Dad’s flowers. Dad’s flowers symbolized his pride, and my success. When I graduated from college, I started work and later got married.

As my fortunes grew, my father gradually became weak, but his gifts of flowers continued until he died of a heart attack a few months before his 70th birthday. I covered him with the largest, reddest roses I could find.

Often in the ten years since, I have felt an urge to go out and buy a big bunch of flowers to fill the living room, but I never did. I knew it would not be the same.

Then one birthday, the doorbell rang. I was feeling sad because I was alone. My son. Matt, had run out earlier with “see you later”, never mentioning my birthday. So I was surprised to see him at the door. “Forgot my key,” he said. smiling. “Forgot your birthday too.” Then suddenly he pulled a bunch of flowers from behind his back, saying, “I hope you like flowers, Mom.” “Oh, Matt,” I cried hugging him hard, “I love flowers!”

①My daughter gave me an address book for my birthday. She knows the one I have is old. The gift is lovely: the cover is colourful, and the pages are white. But I don’t feel like I am free to use this new address book because I’m still tied to my old one.

②My address book tells my own story—the way I moved around. Names were added in different colours from different periods of my life. When I moved back home to Niagara, my address book included the old information I needed in order to be able to get in touch with some of my old friends again.

③There are certainly stories of friendships in this book—the comings and goings of my friends. Their address has been corrected again and again, filling up one line after another. I have started using pencil for some of them because they are taking up too much space! Some friends went on to marry each other. For such things, I used arrows (箭头) to show how these two families had become one. Children’s names were added one by one. Then some got their own lines as they moved out.

④This book also includes the stories of my family—two generations(一代人) of relatives. I can remember all their phone numbers, and I can picture their houses in detail. Some have died, but their addresses are still there in my book.

⑤“Don’t you have all that on your phone?” My daughter, who never uses address books, asked me once when she saw me checking my address book. I know that having it on a phone is super useful and can save a lot of trouble. But making changes on a phone is always done completely. When you don’t see a person any more, you delete (删除) all his information. It’s like he was never there.

⑥My old address book now sits on top of the new one. The magnet(磁铁) on its cover is as strong as ever, keeping all the people from A to Z in order. But my new address book whispers a story of new possibilities. It offers me space for those new friends that I haven’t met yet. I’ll get to it. It’s just a matter of time.