I heard this today, as I stood in the check-out line at my local grocery store. It’s a revision of a well-known saying, and another customer was sharing it with another clerk.

When you complain, you complain alone.
When you laugh, everyone laughs with you.

That seems good to remember.

And what was I buying at the grocery store? I’ll tell you, and I’ll also tell you that I noticed, as my 14 or so items were picked up one by one and scanned, that none were essentials.

• 3 liters of Polar seltzer (for Grace’s 3rd grade party)
• 2 half-gallons of Minutemaid lemonade (ditto)
• 1 box of Cheez-It Party Mix (afternoon snack)
• 1 jar of roasted sunflower seeds (the protein to go with the Cheez-Its)
• 1 sandwich roll (okay, I need that for my lunch — I’m home today)
• 1 single-serving sized bag of potato chips (ditto)
• 1 hosta (to fill in a blank spot in a shady patch)
• 2 six packs of those mini soda cans: Diet Pepsi and Diet A & W (because)
• 1 bag of ice cubes (for Grace’s 3rd grade party)

Not only do we live in an age of complaint, we (still) live in an age of excess. I mean, none of those things are items I need. And yet I bought them, and will again.