I saw the news yesterday that comedian George Carlin died Sunday evening.

Carlin’s death made me question why he was and is one of my all-time favorite comedians.

The answer is the communication lessons that I learned from Carlin.

Lesson Number 1: Be willing to question everything, especially when it comes to language.

Carlin’s legendary ability to play with the English language was, and continues to be, an inspiration to me.

For example, one of his popular jokes was: Why do we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?

The more easily that one can question this or that about language, the better that one becomes at communication, in my opinion.

Lesson Number 2: Profanity is punctuation only when used in moderation.

Carlin was famous for “the seven words” that still cannot be said today on broadcast television.

But, if you looked more deeply into it, you know that Carlin saw profanity as punctuation for expressing one’s passion about something.

Those comedians who take profanity overboard in their acts don’t seem to understand this lesson.

Excessive profanity in a comedian’s performance is analogous to ending sentences with lots of exclamation marks!!!!!

In other words, profanity used excessively distracts from one’s message, and profanity tends to get duller with overuse.

Lesson Number 3: One can find humor in anything.

This has to be one of the best lessons for a happy life.

For helping one to find humor in anything, I highly recommend George Carlin’s book Brain Droppings.

Carlin excelled at turning language inside out, upside down, and backward. Finding humor in anything requires that ability.

So my prescription for a happy life would include honing one’s ability to play with language.