I’m Good Enough, I’m Smart Enough and Doggone It… Stuart Smalley is Funny!

Al Franken struck a nerve and made Stuart Smalley’s quotable catch phrases all the rage on Saturday Night Live in the 1990’s. Remember these?

• I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.”
• “That’s just stinkin’ thinkin!”
• “You’re should-ing all over yourself.”
• “I know I’m not perfect…and that’s…okay.”
• “You’re only as sick as your secrets.”
• “Compare and despair.”
• “You need a checkup from the neckup.”
• “It’s easier to put on slippers than to carpet the whole world.”

My first published middle grade novel, The King of Average is an adventure story about a boy struggling with the unnamed fear that he’s not good enough, smart enough to be anything but mediocre and that’s… okay! It’s more than okay – It’s all he believes he can aspire to.

That was me at age eleven. Decades before Al Franken came up with Stuart Smalley and gently poked fun at the type of healing therapy and self-help affirmations that became popular as the “Me Generation” tried healing their inner child, I was working on affirming my ‘averageness’ to forestall the belief I was not as bad as I felt.

My favorite part of Smalley’s therapy involved a guided visualization of a walk through the Dysfunctional Forrest – a dark and scary place. “Let’s see who’s here. Uh- oh. Look! There’s Rage-aholic  Rabbit! Let’s meet Grandiose Bear, Overcommitted Opossum, Sex-aholic Squirrel, and a beautiful little child…a child who looks a lot like you…”

Franken’s satire was inspired by his experiences in Al-Anon and is more a comment on those who talk the talk without walking the walk because, let me tell you, it’s a real odyssey to heal that child and re-parent yourself so you can honestly love who you are.

All kidding aside, being a walking, talking wounded adult child takes its toll. I also think there are millions of kids who’ve suffered this type of love deprivation and worse what with all the single parent families and broken homes in the world. We find so many ways to fill that void: drugs, sex, rages, depression, obsession and phoniness. It’s a real problem and a barrier to living a fulfilled, happy life.

I hope my book inspires kids to think about this after reading a fun adventure story. And then later, when they identify the source of their unhappiness, they can undertake a similar journey in all seriousness, and endure that inevitable pain of healing buffered by a good sense of humor.