Abstract
Lately, I have been thinking about how very seriously we seem to take ourselves in this field. Even my own department, which has always been characterized by a certain light-hearted collegiality despite its scholarly productivity, has more recently seemed to be a much more serious place to be around. Faculty and PhD students seem more over-burdened and fixated on research productivity—to the exclusion of almost everything else—than I recall from the past, which is fine on the face of it, but the seriousness does not seem to be quite so leavened with humor as much as it once was. I wonder why? Is professional life condemned to be a pursuit available only to the humorless among us? Well, it turns out that Chuck Manz has been wondering about the same thing—why the tenor of the field seems to be so damn serious. Is it an affliction that comes with the territory? Should we do something about it? Can we do something about it? Chuck has some thoughts, and a good little prescription that should not be all that hard for many of us to accomplish—as well as a few telling stories to make his point. Take a break. Put a smile on your face. It could be a minimal effort to make for a professional life with a little more pleasure in it.