Words of Wisdom

I've been jotting down little bits and pieces of self-advice, words to live by. I thought I'd post a few. If you have any of your own, feel free to leave them in the comments section.

There is no such thing as perfection. But that doesn’t mean that we should stop trying. It’s a slippery slope, though. Striving for perfection, while knowing that it can never really be reached, is healthy. Yearning for perfection and feeling bad because you don’t reach it is destructive.

If you don’t like all the sex and violence on TV, you have the power to change it. It’s called the on/off button. There is one truth in television: they will produce what people will watch. If people only tuned in to shows without sex and violence, believe me…that’s all that would be on the air.

Customer service employees never deserve to be yelled at. Remember that we customers don’t always have the whole story. Also remember that all customer service employees have a manager. If the employee has erred, talk to the manager. Even then, though, be civil. If you’re prone to blowing your top in public, acknowledge that you’ve got the problem, not them.

People are not meant to live in the same place all their lives. You know that expression “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence?” Ever experienced that feeling that things just seem better, or more appealing, somewhere else? I think the urge to go somewhere else is instinctive. There’s always an exception to the rule, and most people suppress the instinct, but I think somewhere deep down it’s in all of us. Ever been at a museum and they’re theorizing about why a certain group of ancient people left their homes or disappeared? They always have the same theories. The river dried up. The food source disappeared. The winter was too cold. But maybe they just wanted a change of scenery!

Don’t get angry at people who walk really slowly through a crosswalk, forcing drivers to wait. Have you ever been about to turn at an intersection, and waited for a person who was crossing the street, only for the person to walk intentionally slow, even holding up traffic? Sometimes they don’t even have a “walk” sign when they’re crossing. Sometimes they slow down even more when they realize a car is waiting. I used to get really bothered by this. We all know the point they’re trying to make: I hurry for no one because I am a slave to no one. But I realize now that anyone whose psyche is so injured that they feel compelled to make that kind of point in the path of a vehicle that weighs several thousand pounds should be pitied, not detested.

There are some foods that should be enjoyed, even if they are not healthy. Life is too short to eat fat free sour cream. God made chocolate delicious for a reason. We should, however, take full responsibility for our health and practice moderation. Movie theater popcorn every day is foolish. But occasional movie theater popcorn feeds the soul.

Angry people are usually just scared of something. No one likes a mean person, but if you understand that most angry or mean people are that way because they are afraid, it might be easier to avoid getting angry back at them. Look at the animal world for confirmation of this. I was once accosted by an angry squirrel on the balcony of our apartment. I couldn’t figure out what had gotten into this crazy squirrel. Without fully understanding, I hated that squirrel for jumping out of my potted fern and scaring me, and then hanging around, chattering nosily at me. But when I found the baby squirrels inside the plant pot, I realized that the squirrel wasn’t crazy or angry or rabid. She was just scared that I was going to kill her babies. We don’t always have the whole picture. In fact, we rarely do. Remember that before reacting.

It is not difficult to make a good cup of coffee. “Barrista” is just a fancy word to make you feel better about paying too much for a cup of coffee that you could have made equally well at home.