"Hey Dad, what's your favorite part of your job?"

At dinner last night, my son hit me with a BIG question. There are always questions, especially with 10 year olds, but this was a BIG question. I work as a physical therapist in a nursing home, and spend a lot of time helping people who, because of physical and mental impairments, can't help themselves. It can be very trying, very physical, and at the end of the day exhausting. So it took me a minute to give him something positive to hang on to.

"My favorite part is making people smile, maybe even get them to laugh a little."

"But Dad," he said, "I thought you were a therapist, not a clown. What do you do, wear a funny nose, fall down?"

My daughter, also 10, almost choked on her ginger ale as she giggled.

"I poke fun at myself, sometimes tell jokes, pretend to do goofy things, and mostly take an interest in who my people are and what their lives are like. If they smile, or if they laugh at me or even with me, they don't worry so much about how they feel. For a short time, they feel better."

"You still do real therapy too, right?" he asked.

"Oh yeah, I work very hard. But sometimes, there's a place for fun. The trick is always knowing when and where."

He seemed satisfied, my daughter nodded, and my wife smiled. One BIG question down, a lifetime more to go.