Saxby Chambliss has learned a thing or two over twenty years in government. The outgoing US Senator arrived in Washington as a representative who came as part of Republican take over of Congress during the Clinton years. He moved to the Senate in 2002 and chaired the U.S. Senate intelligence committee when the country was, among other things, hunting Osama bin Laden. He was part of the bipartisan group of legislators known as the gang of eight that took a stab at deficit reform. But through all that, Chambliss says he kept his eyes trained on his family. GPB’s Grant Blankenship and the Telegraph of Macon’s Mike Stucka sat down with the Senator from Moultrie recently in a Macon coffee shop to talk - not to talk about politics … but what he’s learned about living over the years. The first question: How do you define a happy life?

Well if my wife's happy, I'm happy. That's always the easy answer.

You know, when it comes to determining whether or not you are satisfied with the direction your life's going, I always measure that by how do I feel when I get up in the morning? Do I really want to go to work where I am going to work? I’ve always been blessed.

The most important thing in your life is communication. Communication with your patient, communication with your fellow businessman, communication with your family, communication with your fellow worker on the line if that's where you're working. If you're not able to communicate with people, then some point in time you're going to develop a distrust with other people. And that distrust will ultimately cause problems.

You have to learn when you deal in the secret world that I deal in that you can't talk about what you hear. My wife rarely knows anything about what I am doing. Even some of the places I go I don't tell her. For example I've never told her I've been shot at several time by bad guys leaving Baghdad, for example.

My wife's probably the most honest person I know. She tells me what she thinks. She tells me when she thinks I am right or when I'm wrong. And she's always taught my children that way. I'd have to say she's been a very good guiding light from that perspective. And she's always made sure my feet were on the ground. Even though I got elected to Congress, when I'm home I'm Daddy and I'm her husband. I am not Mr. Congressman.

What you have to do is, whether it's a political campaign or you're 24-7 on the job in Washington and back home traveling around the state, there are points in time when I just throw up my hands and say, "Guys, OK, that's it. I am going to Moultrie, I'm going to sit down with my wife and have dinner, and I'm not doing anything tomorrow. I'm not doing anything the next day." If you don't do that and you are totally consumed by your job, then your family's going to suffer from it, which means you suffer.

My wife's already told me that I'm really going to work now. Our time's not really been our time. We couldn't, we can't go now to the grocery store without somebody stopping me and telling me how we ought to be running the country. And that's OK, that's what I get paid for and I have never minded that. But I do look forward to saying ,"Let me give you the phone number of my successor."

Tags: Grant Blankenship, Georgia, politics, Senate, life, wisdom, learning