The theologian of the comic strips, Charlie Brown, was once talking with his friend Lucy about the meaning of life. Lucy asks Charlie Brown, "Do you think life has any meaning?" Charlie Brown starts to answer her, but she interrupts with, "I mean, do you think life has any meaning after you've failed nine spelling tests in a row and your teacher hates you?"

To which Charlie Brown calmly says, "That's a different question."

I was reading recently about the origin of the word "sabotage." It comes from French, where a "sabot" is a wooden shoe. It used to be that when workers in French factories were unhappy, they would throw a "sabot," a wooden shoe, into the machinery, thus "sabotaging" it.

I know that there are times in my life when I feel like a wooden shoe has been thrown into my machi…