One day, a friend who’s like a walking joke-book greeted me.
“You want to hear a good one?” He didn’t wait for an answer.
He told me of a guy who wanted to give a birthday gift to his mother-in-law. Out of fresh ideas, he decides to buy her a large plot in an expensive cemetery.
But on her next birthday, he bought her nothing.
The woman complained, “You didn’t give me any gift this year!”
He sighed, “Well, you haven’t used the gift I gave you last year.”
He laughed like a hyena on heroin and slapped my back with such force, I felt he rearranged my internal organs.
“Why aren’t you laughing, Bo?” he asked.
“Aside from the fact that I’m wondering where my lungs are, I can’t identify with your joke.”
“Why?”
“I love my mother-in-law. And I miss her when I don’t see her.”
He looked at me like I said something in German.
“Bo, I knew you were weird but this is too much.”
“My in-laws are fantastic. They follow the first rule for in-laws: They never intrude in our lives and they never impose what they want.”“Hmm. Do they bleed? Or breathe? They may be aliens.”
“But when we need them, they drop everything and are with us in a wink. When I can’t repair our toilets, my father-in-law comes with his wrench and a towel around his neck. When I used to drive an old car and it broke down, he would arrive with his car–hand me over his key–while mine went to the shop. They even gave us a little property, plus seed money to build our own small home…”
My friend cleared his throat. “Uh, do they have another daughter I can meet?”
“Sorry, my wife’s an only girl.”
“Drats.”
To all who have in-laws, set this rule on cement: Don’t intrude or impose. But be there when they need you.
Love your in-laws.
May your dreams come true,
Bo Sanchez
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