A long time ago I began to ponder my place in the universe... Weighty subject matter for my age, true, but I was a little farther along than the average fourteen year old... I looked around at the world and I asked myself 'Is this all there is?'... Naturally, this question was based on the fact that I was still in the homeless shelter, and was understandably distraught over my lot in life. I looked at people around me, and decided that in order to understand myself, I should observe others...

1. True Growth of Oneself is Only Possible Through Learning of Others.

In my ongoing study of human nature (which I add is still in development, and will be until I die), I began to question various 'facts' that others used in the definition of themselves, and the application of these to myself. Generally, people with the perception that they had gone as far as they could never went any farther - even with the opportunity to do so... I asked these people why they opted against these obviously beneficial changes to their situation, and the reply I got most often was, "I can't do that. It'll blow up in my face." Strange, indeed. That person perceived that he/she was as far along as they could get, and believed any opportunity to change their station to be a trap. The old adage applying here with vigor, they were intent to clamp onto that bird in the hand with all they were worth, and to HELL with all the birds in all the bushes in the WORLD.

It's said over and over that we only use ten percent of our brains... Why? Is the rest solely for storage - or even totally unutilized? I think not. All you learn, experience and believe throughout your life is still packed tight enough to stay within the delineated limits. Even a hundred-year-old person for some reason never goes past that ten percent... Weird. Then it hit me like a bolt from the blue...

You only use that much because that's all you BELIEVE you CAN.

The implications of this epiphany are far-reaching... As children, we are taught our limitations before anything else... If you do this, you'll get a spanking/lecture/time-out. Be good. Good and bad are immensely complex subjects for a child, so we equate doing what we're TOLD as GOOD, and not doing so as BAD. This carries over throughout their lives... This is not to say that we should let our children do whatever they please, but rather that we have to drastically rethink our processes. I'll elucidate. You are taught to keep away from fire because it will burn you. Yet we often see people walking through flames without damage, or walking across hot coals. How can they do such things? Ready? It's really simple...

THEY BELIEVE THEY CAN, PERIOD.

2. Belief is the Most Powerful Application of Our Minds.

I'm sure you've all heard the adage of faith being able to move mountains... Well, it can also keep that mountain right where it is... Reality, as you or I know it, is the product of perception and belief. Your mind processes what you see, and you pidgeonhole it according to what you've already been told. Despite evidence that fire doesn't burn, you believe it DOES, so it DOES. All the men in India can march single file across all the coal in Kentucky, and it won't matter a whit. Belief that fire - while not burning THEM - WILL burn YOU results in you getting burned EVERY SINGLE TIME. Mind you, you only need to get burned once before your mind says 'I told you so.', and you'll never try it again. Experience has borne out your PERCEPTION, and that's that.

WRONG.

Reality is based on perception. What you perceive with your five senses defines the world around you. However, perception is a rickety foundation at best. You've all doubtless experienced 'tricks' that proved your senses could be mistaken, so knowing that how can you possibly let something that you know to be faulty define your place in the universe? It's like giving the wheel of a truck to a chipmunk and telling it to drive. You know it's going to go badly, but if it's all you know to do with both the truck and the chipmunk you'll do it. That's how it is with us and our minds. While we know that our five senses are gimmicky and prone to failure, using them to define our world is all we know to do with them, so we strap in the chipmunk and start the truck...

With this said, you'll probably ask yourself whether I'm crazy... Maybe. But think for a second... Anyone who challenges what we've pretty much dedicated our lives to has to be something... Since we feel that people who believe as we do are 'normal', it stands to reason that those who do not are 'abnormal', or in the vernacular, 'crazy'... Let's examine some of the more crazy people throughout history for a moment... No particular order here, in case you want to try to split the history hair...

Jesus Christ. Here was a guy that healed the sick, made four fish and a loaf of bread feed ten thousand hungry people - TWICE, raised the dead, and walked on water... His mistake? He challenged the status quo... Everything he said and did went against the highly developed sense of everyone's long-standing belief of their own limitations. If you look in the Bible, you'll see how many times he TELLS US that faith/belief are all we need to change our position in the world. He warns against worrying - which is basically the mind chattering away about how you're getting into deep trouble based on what you've been taught in a desperate attempt to STOP you - as a bad habit you're better off without... He also cautioned us against various other limit-setting practices, such as judgementalism and materialism for similar reasons...

Did we listen? Nope. We nailed him to a tree. Why? Historically, mankind hates to be proven wrong about anything. ESPECIALLY when they thought they were righteous, upstanding citizens... He should have said 'He who is without sin should drive the first nail', but I digress...

Merlin. A wizard. Took a sword, a dopey kid, and a lot of mojo and created civilized man... Before Merlin came along, people were pretty much the same as cavemen, just with better tools. He instilled in them a sense of right and wrong that they pretty much ran with. Of course, back then an old guy saying something was the way it was because he said so had a little more weight than today, but it doesn't detract from his accomplishments... Was he a wizard? Perhaps... When you consider it, alot of the things we have today would have been considered magic in those times, so it stands to reason that he was a little more ingenious than most, and through inventive use of available materials, he turns into this big wise wizard...

Michaelangelo. This was a guy that was the foremost artist and thinker of his time. Aside from his paintings, he was an avid thinker and inventor... Admittedly, with all the detailed sketches and continuous pondering he never actually BUILT any of the things he designed. BUT what he did was important in that he challenged conventional belief, and his scribbles on what he envisioned as _could_ be were the foundation of more than a few innovations (can you say 'Kitty Hawk'? I knew that you could). His problem? Materials. The world as a whole needed a couple hundred years to catch up with him. As for Mike, well, the frustration of being the only guy on earth to know how LITTLE we KNEW sure was a heavy trip...

Columbus. As a Native American, I'm a little reluctant to list Chris... However, until he came along, people vehemently believed that the world was flat... People before him sailed off and never came back, which was the basis for that belief (see, there IS a theme here), and here comes Columbus, who for all intents and purposes ROUNDED the WORLD through sheer FORCE OF WILL. He never wavered in the belief of the planet's roundness, even though his crew desperately begged him to reconsider... I feel that if he DID waver, he'd have gone right over the proverbial edge, but he never flagged... Poof. Round world. One 'crazy' Italian pitted his will against the collective belief of the entire world, and he won. Talk about David beats Goliath, eh? No wonder these Italians are so cocky...

Rasputin. This guy was a magician as well, sure, but he was more into the baser applications of it all... Not only did he convince himself he was a magician, but he used that to get a cushy job in the Russian Hierarchy as an advisor. He then decided that he should be in charge, and managed to destroy the Czar and Czarina that he convinced to let him sign up in the first place. His belief was so strong in the fact that he could do all these terrible things, that he convinced others of it as well. Some pish-posh this sort of thing as mass hypnosis and such, but all it really does is prove me out.

Belief. Belief in what you can do is the only thing that limits us... Not the superficial belief that we have now, where you take on a challenging assignment with the belief that you can handle it... That's along the same lines, but not what I mean. I mean the straight out of the door unshakable type belief. You're taught what goes up MUST come down, right? Is it the belief that creates the process, or the process that creates the belief? It's the BELIEF that CREATES the process! How do I come about this? We maintain this belief DESPITE evidence to the contrary. All those satellites in orbit, and we still cling to the notion of what goes up must come down... I know, I know, you figure that these things are out of the gravitational pull of the earth, right? Well, really, all that proves is that belief has a limited range... What range is it? Well, that depends on who you ask... Some people will tell you matter of factly that in order to escape the full effect of the earth's gravity, you need to travel at about 5 miles per second until you get 30 miles away from the surface... Since these people wear white lab coats, you figure that they're authorities, and your belief defers to theirs.

Very dangerous. When you let others decide what is and isn't FOR you, you're just asking for trouble... You think Torquemada would have done all that damage he did in the Inquisition if these 'heretics' - Gentiles and Wiccans and non-Catholics - had united themselves as he had with his Catholics? Nope. You think Hitler would have done all the damage HE did if the Jews united against him instead of going underground? Nope. Why didn't they? Well, it's the one counter to belief... FEAR.

3. Fear is the Only Block Between Belief and Reality.

These 'victims' didn't unite against the Spaniards because they felt they didn't have a chance to stop them. Same with the victims of the Holocaust... They even convinced themselves that these scumbags being in the driver's seat was God's will, and marched blithely to the oven. BULLSHIT. Somehow, we have to stop equating fear with piety... Fear of God, or somesuch nonsense... It's cowardice as a VIRTUE, people. Read the book. God doesn't WANT a bunch of dopes who follow around whoever's speaking. He wants people that CHOOSE of their OWN volition to accept Him, with the courage to stand fast when the shit's swirling around. People who see evil at work and put a STOP to it. People who do good for it's own sake - not for some payoff. People who use the gift of life to make the world a better place. Not many of those people, are there...?

All that traditionalist mumbo-jumbo is just a WORK used to elevate these men above you. If you challenge your priest's authority, the other people in church might think you're a bad person, so you keep quiet while he shovels his interpretation of whatever book he has right down your throat and thank him afterward... You know the only difference between a priest and you in church? All the other sheep figure a couple years chanting in a rectory somehow makes him more in tune with God than you, and that's that. The same goes for any religion. The only thing that makes him better than you REALLY is that he tells you he is, and you accept it. Nevermind that we're all just winging it through the void, THIS guy knows what's what, so let's dress up on Sunday/Saturday/etc... Sounds kind of silly doesn't it? Because it IS. You think these guys call you the 'Flock' because it sounds poetic? Baaaaa. Humbug! All they have in truth is a protection scam with robes and incense... 'You know, if you don't have God/Yahweh/Jehovah/Allah/Buddah/etc bad things are going to come across...'

A quick word on Fear of God is in order, of course... Atheists, feel free to skip ahead. God, being the Entity that made you and the world, is given His propers. Where would you be without Him? Now, alot of people consider God 'the Father', but that's poetry... God is just like your DAD/MOM, only MUCH -BIGGER-. Therefore, since you're essentially in His house as long as you walk the earth, you'd do well to stay within the rules, hmm? What happens when you fuck up at your parent's house? Kicked out? Ass-beat? Scolded? Whatever happens, as bad as that messes you up, multiply that unhappy by ten-thousand and you're STILL not even -close- to the lump-lump you'll get from HIM. The rules aren't that tough to keep, either, so stop bitching...

I know by now some of you probably think I'm an atheist... Wrong. I believe in a Supreme Being, but not because I was told to... I believe through the available evidence that logic INSISTS that there is. Think about it. You were the result of one little sperm cell in 23 trillion. Everyone on earth is a Lotto Winner at least ONCE, or they wouldn't be around. When you realise that you started beating these kinds of odds on a CELLULAR level, then your little problems take on a whole new perspective, eh? Damn right!

Now, I'm not saying that if you believe you can fly, and don't fear falling, then you can fly - so get off that window ledge, won't you? There's more...

When you're in your formative years, fear is used to keep you on the straight and narrow (aka - just like the other kids, and just like your parents). Fear of a spanking, fear of going to bed without dinner, fear of the monsters under your bed (which is how they get the little rugrats to STAY in bed, of course), fear of just about everything... Why? Why do we raise our kids with these bogus boundaries? Because WE'RE afraid of what will happen to them if we don't! See? It's a gigantic circle jerk perpetrated through the generations since the beginning of civilization! Just about every complex emotive response is either rooted in or the product of fear. Disagree? well, let's look first at the Primals...

Joy. Happiness, contentedness, whatever. This is the state that everyone aspires to, but so few ever attain. Joy is the most primal, most honest, most sought.

Neutral. Not joy, not fear. Just 'blah'. This is the state of lukewarm you're in before Number Three kicks in...

Fear. The total opposite of joy/fulfilment/contentedness... Fear will make you worry that you don't DESERVE your own HAPPINESS - or even worse, that it will be taken away! Thus, Joy is neutralized...

Now, when you consider these as the primal emotives, you can see where this is going... I know, I know... 'What about 'rage'? Isn't rage a primal emotion? No. Rage is a byproduct. You think about how someone took advantage of you... You're afraid that people will find out. You're afraid that whomever did so will get away with it. You're afraid if you don't intervene, this motherfucker is going to skip tra-la-la all over and brag about how he played you for a sap... These parts, and others like them CREATE the emotive response we popularly know as Rage/Anger.

Now then, as I was saying.... All these 'complex' emotives that we feel elevate us above the beasts of the earth are (brace yourself) ALL BASED IN F.E.A.R.! Here's a breakdown...

Worry. This one is pretty nakedly associated with fear. Worry will tell you that things are going down the crapper no matter how GOOD you have it. Really. You worry that the market will crash, that the computers will scrap your life, that the boss will dump some shit in your lap, that you'll forget your wife's birthday for the seventh time straight... You know what worry makes you FORGET? You have enough money to PLAY the market, you're important enough to be kept track of ON a computer, you have a JOB, you have a WIFE. Sorry about the masculine inferences, but it's alot of effort to make this transgender and if you've gotten this far, you're probably too on the ball to get all P.C. on me... That said, let's move on... Fear snakes out its tentacles and chokes you right out of the running. Doubt, shame, piety, and others are all forms of worry, and worry is fear.

Pride. This is a hybrid between neutral and joy, but still liberally sprinkled with fear... Pride kicks in when you see - albeit briefly - exactly how good you have it. Then you start COMPARING yourself to others... When you come out on top, you feel better about things, but when you DON'T you start grumbling and busting your hump in an effort to come out on top again. You fear that your lot isn't 'good enough' when you compare it to 'the Joneses', which makes you hate them - AND yourself. Do you get angry when people prove you're wrong about something? That's pride. Do you hate it when you think people believe you're less than _you_ think you are? Pride. Do you think other types/classes/races of people are less than you are in the grand scheme; be it blacks, gays, poor folks or whatever? Pride. VERY messy stuff, kids. I personally believe that if someone wants to prove me wrong, then they'll have to work... If you're open-minded, (which, tragically, few of us really are) you'll listen to a different view to better understand the person that holds it. BUT, if you've got pride in (which is to say, RUNNING) your life, then anyone that disagrees with you is really just trying to make you look like a dope, and -poof- you've got yourself a new enemy.

Those are just a few examples, but you can see what I'm saying, right? Now for the meat of the meal.

4.) Identifying Fear is the First Step to Conquering It.

You've probably never thought about how fear is the root of so many emotions, but I'll bet you're thinking -now-, huh? Great. Now, when you accept that fear is the only limit to our potential, and then get where you can identify the various forms of fear in your life, you can get to the HARD part.

Eliminating them.

Sounds easy, huh? It's not. Not by a LONG shot. You can't just unlearn all that with a snap of the fingers, and it's unrealistic to expect to, let alone behave as if you did. However, I propose a different tact. Slowly wean yourself off fear... Imagine the absolute *worst* thing that can happen in any given situation, and take steps to guard against it as best you can. For some fears, like whether someone will shaft you on an online auction, it's easy. A way I screen sellers is to ask if they deal through buyer's escrow, where a third party will hold on to the money until I get my stuff, and if it's not what I paid for then it goes back. If they do, then they're solid, and I -still- deal through escrow. If they don't wanna deal through escrow, then that's a flag that they might be a little shady. You know that those 'vouchesafes' they get from other buyers can be faked, so that's the only way to determine for REAL if they're legit. See? You guard against the worst that can happen, and it prevents you even entering INTO murky water. Sure, it costs a little more to go through escrow, but figure if it saves you from getting hoodwinked ONCE, it's well worth the extra expense.

For other fears, like whether the plane will crash, it's not so easy. BUT if you MUST fly, buy that damned insurance. The worst that can happen is that you go down in flames, true, and it's also true that if it does there's not alot you can do... HOWEVER, you can at least see to it that your loved ones are taken care of should it happen, and if enough people are buying the insurance and COLLECTING, well, I think the insurance companies will see to it that the airlines will start making DAMN sure that the things are in tip-top shape before they take off... Before long, under those circumstances, I'd suppose it really WILL be safer to fly. Wouldn't you?

5.) A Little Forethought Goes a LONG Way.

You'll find that the proverbial ounce of prevention puts you back at the helm of the S.S.Destiny in short order, people. Sure, at the extreme there are folks that are so scared of the world that they never come outside, but that's not exactly living life to the fullest, is it? My father said to me that the secret to prosperity and serenity is to 'hope for the best, and prepare for the worst'. That's truer than alot of old sayings, lemme tell ya.

I go into business dealings with other folks hoping that it will be mutually beneficial, but I'm covered in case they want to play me for a sap. If you do construction, write up a contract. Handshakes are for friends, but friends are a personal matter. We all accept that personal matters and business matters are a bad mix; ergo, a handshake is ill suited for business dealings. Get that paper signed. Like before, the less inclined the other party is to sign an agreement in black and white, the more inclined they were to hose you off proper.

Sure, it sounds like I'm against trusting your fellow man, but think about it... Nine times out of ten when you give someone your trust, they stab you right in the back. You know why? Your trust, coming easily, is not given the value it would have if the other party had to work for it. So if it's not really considered of great value - and with you giving it away willy-nilly, you show that YOU don't think it does - why should THEY act like it does? Take control. Not so muchso that you turn into a jerkoff, of course, but use a little common sense. If you pick someone up in a bar, for example, taking them home for a few weeks is a BAD idea. I've got people I've been friends with for YEARS that STILL haven't seen the inside of my house, so the odds of someone I've just met getting past the threshhold are slim and none, and Slim left town.

Okay, now here's the thing... Trust is proceeding with people totally without fear. I know I told you that you need to eliminate fear, but understand that there's a fine line between fearlessness and stupidity. Stay on the right side of it, alright? Trust, love, respect... All these things are the highest valued perceptions of our fellow human being, but if you toss these around like Little Abner playing in the gun closet, chances are similar that you're ALSO gonna blow something off. So be CAREFUL. Understand the *power* you give someone when you bestow upon them your love, trust or respect... and realize that it goes both ways.

6.) Value is Directly Proportioned to the Effort Required in Procurement.

I'll tell you a story, to illustrate my meaning (the term is a parable, but that has biblical connotations, so I won't mention it). When I was a younger man, I got this little job at the corner store with about the meanest son of a gun there was, a Mr. Jakobi. Nothing I did was good enough for this guy, and he acted like I was sent by the supermarket to make sure he closed down. But I persevered, and eventually the old fella decided to let me lock up one night... Well, folks, when I thought about all the shit I went through with this guy, the fact that he was giving me the reins was something BIG, and I was determined not to fuck it up. Can you guess why? Because I busted my chops and swam upstream like a nut until this guy finally decided I was alright after all. His respect, his acceptance, was hard won and thus precious.

Same thing with ANYTHING worth having. If it comes easy, you don't give it the same value you would if it comes hard. Most people will go the path of Least Resistance, but they're never happy are they? Because there is nothing of REAL fought-your-way-clear value in their lives, that's why. Why do you think *rich* people are the first ones to tell you that money doesn't mean shit? Because they've already GOT it - probably without having to bust their hump for it, too. Thus, it's not given the same worth as it would be to you or me. You know what rich people think *is* important? FRIENDS. Not the sort of friend you go have a beer with once in a while, but a REAL back you to the hilt when the shit's hitting the fan friend. You know why?

They don't HAVE any of those.

Damned few people DO.

You see, everyone wants to be your pal when you're Charlie Potatoes... But when the well runs dry? Then you'll find out pretty quick you're not as popular as you thought you were. Rich people KNOW that, and it bugs the SHIT out of them. Everyone they know pretty much sees them as a bankbook with boring stories that they have to pretend to be interested in... They NEVER know for SURE if the love of their life is into them, or the money they have. Why do you think rich people usually only hang out with other rich people? Hell, most of the time THAT doesn't even work out, as the divorce rate in tinsel town grandly attests. When I deal with people either in business, fellowship or romance, I still use the standard I use with any other exchange...

Figure what the WORST is that can happen, and keep it from happening. I can't stress it enough. When you know, or at least have a fairly good idea how bad you CAN be screwed over, you'll keep both eyes open. The old coin about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer applies, or as my father put it: 'Watch your friends, and your enemies can't harm you.' Now, I know that there's some things that come up where a 'friend' of yours leaves you ass in the breeze, but that's where a little common sense comes into play... Say you loan a guy fifty bucks, and he says he'll get it back to you next week - and doesn't. Even worse, you spend a week trying to track them down for your dough - only to get a song and a dance about why he doesn't have it. You know what you're supposed to do?

Nothing.

That's right. A man's word is the only thing that separates him from the low beasts, and if you find out that it ain't worth shit for just fifty bucks you're luckier than most. Think of the people that bought in to time-shares, dot-coms, or similarly lost their life savings to some dink with a sweet line of bullshit. Then move on.

7.) Distractions are the Same as Obstacles.

Now folks, as things go this is the simplest - and hardest - thing to do, bar none. Most of us have things that need doing around the house or in our lives, and we just put them off. 'I'll fix that after the big game' or similar procrastinations... Folks, that's like eating dessert first, and skipping dinner because you're no longer hungry. Result? Waste. Sure, you could be finishing that painting you've been dabbling on, but let's see what's on the tube first... Bad idea. The thing is, it's only FREE time when everything you're SUPPOSED to do is DONE. So if you're putting off fixing that door, finishing that novel, or tightening that fence because it's BOWLING night, you're kinda doing things a little on the backwards side, aintcha? And you wonder why you're not having any fun? If that wasn't silly enough, then there's the guy that has like three hundred channels and can't find anything on TV; or nothing is showing at the Bijou you wanna see; or you've rented everything at the video place; or you've played all your videogames. For the slow class, that's called a hint, folks. Turn it off. Get to work.

Let me make something as clear as I can... The only thing that you can waste and NOT make more of is TIME. Ask yourself this:

Do you own the things you own, or do the things you own own YOU?

Pick up the remote if you dropped it. Heh.

Now I'm not saying you should shun technology and move out to the forest and eat pine-cones, no. That's plain silly. However, spiffy items from the appliance chain on credit cards tend to cancel out any joy they may provide if you're worrying about making payments all the time, don't you agree? Same thing for that shiny sportscar or big ol' house. Sure, you should have something to enjoy for busting your hump in the rat-race - that's not in dispute. But if that stuff (and the promise of more) is the only thing forcing you out of bed in the morning? Time to scale back a smidge, isn't it? Nothing major, mind you. Just start being satisfied with what you already have. More on that later...

Suffice to say the only people that panic when you start being happy with what you have are bankers and salesmen. Contrary to what the dealer says, if your car RUNS then you don't really need a new one, do you? You only NEED a new one if it DOESN'T run, and would cost more to FIX than a new one would cost to BUY. Contrary to what a banker says, it's not a good idea to pay him 35% interest FOR that new car - especially if you don't NEED it. Not exactly the actions of guys that say they're on your side, is it? No, clearly not.

8.) Gratitude is the Key to Happiness.

You know the old saw about 'I wept for I had no shoes, until I saw a man who had no feet', I'm sure. There's a LOT of wisdom in that. When you sit back and consider how badly you COULD have it (if you need help visualizing, watch the nightly news), as well as considering all you've read so far, and you start looking pretty fuckin' well-off, no matter HOW -BAD- you think you have it. When you spit at a guy when he's trying to make some change washing windshields and tell him, "Get a job" you're forgetting something VERY important, friends.

That COULD be YOU.

Scoff if you want; but you'll find that a disturbing amount of those scraggly looking folks out there NOW did the same thing in the eighties... By that I mean scoff, not that they were bums back then. Pay attention.

Now I'm not saying you should carry around a roll of quarters to dole out to every panhandler you come across, no. Beggars (with some exceptions) barter pity for cash. Not a good transaction. If a guy asks for change to buy a cup of coffee, don't give him money - give him a cup of coffee. It's what he asked for help getting, right? If he asks for change to catch the bus, give him a token. See the pattern? That way you get all the 'good feeling' you're supposed to get from helping someone down on their luck without worrying you're subsidizing a drug habit.

That's the difference between a bum and someone scraping by that just LOOKS like one. Money is for people who WORK, folks. So if a guy's washing windows, or cleaning up yards, or whatever - he's a worker, and should be paid when he works for you. Sure, some druggies wash windows and such, but some druggies have been elected MAYOR - what they do with the money they earn is THEIR business. Just enjoy your clean windows and move on.

That said, consider all the people in the world that are down on their luck. It's not hard, folks, there're entire COUNTRIES full of them. Flies buzzing around, and they're too weak from hunger to so much as wave it off their forehead. People dying of various diseases. People being dragged out of their houses in the middle of the night because the interrogation squad needs to keep in practice. Compared to them, you've got it pretty good, eh? That's the idea, folks.

Run with it.

These are the eight basic truths that a great many people seem to be unaware of these days, so I decided to jot them down with a quick summary in case they weren't as self-explanatory to everyone else as *I* thought. I'm not saying you should live by them, to be sure. These are not 'rules', 'commandments' or 'guidelines' for the simple reason that people tend to find out the 'rules' and then promptly do the opposite - people are funny like that. However, if you simply keep some of them in your mind from time to time, you should do okay. These items are true for everyone. Every time.

Conversely, some may pooh-pooh this collection of immutable truths as 'new-age ramblings', but consider the source of such detraction, and WHY they would want to discount what is known by all to be true.

Smiling, aren't ya?