Not many people today remember that the comedian, author, and musician, Steve Allen, was the first host of the Tonight Show. I shared a name with Steve Allen, and just when I had made arrangements to go and meet personally the famous comedian, he up an died! So we never met. But I’ve read several of his books, and watched him on TV. I laugh at much of what he said in a book he wrote about how to tell a joke.

Here’s one of the lines that strikes me as funny: “I’m loyal to a fault. I’ve got a great many faults and I’m loyal to every one of them!” What do you think?

I think Benjamin Franklin would laugh at that—it sounds like Poor Richard could have made that up!

In Franklin’s Autobiography, he tells about and charts his “Project for Moral Perfection.” And he describes how amazed he was when he started this project to find out how many faults he had. So he worked diligently on this project all of his life. I believe he came pretty close to perfection on all the traits he attempted achieve a faultless character.

He wrote that the character trait of Order caused him the most consternation. He had a good memory and was very organized in his workplace and home. Rather that perfect this trait he was reminded of a story he told.

There was a man who wanted to purchase and axe from a smithy. He told the merchant that he wanted the whole of the axe to be as bright at the edge. The blacksmith agreed to give him a bright axe if the man would turn the grinding wheel while the smith held the axe to it for shinning. He agreed. The turned the wheel and after a while the man wanted to look at his axe. The axe wasn’t quite bright all the way, so he kept turning the wheel, which was very strenuous because of the pressure the smith placed on the job.

After quite a while, the man looked again at the axe and told the smith he would take it the way it was. The smith said no, he should press on and before long would have a finished product. As of now it was only a speckled axe.

“But”, the man said, “I think I like a speckled axe the best!”

Isn’t that the way many of us are? When the pressure’s on, we just can’t continue with our project we “like the speckled axe the best!”

If you know the history of Benjamin Franklin, you know his character traits are all shiny bright!