They are who they are.  Don’t glorify them.  Don’t make them into something they aren’t.  And surely do not make excuses to justify their inexcusable behavior. So what exactly are they then?  Aliens?  Visitors from another realm of consciousness?  Androids imbued with unimaginably sensitive emotions?  No, none of these things.  They are instead adult human beings purportedly capable of making intelligent decisions predicated on information available to them at the time—precisely the same information available to the rest of us, by the way.  Now whether they use that information to full advantage is entirely up to them.  That is their decision to make, not mine or yours or even God Almighty’s.  The power—or lack thereof—thus lies strictly within their very adult hands.  So best wishes to them, but no more than that; that’s right…..no more than that!  They are grown people who are rightfully expected to wear Big Boy Britches and to brush their teeth in the morning and to utilize crosswalks for walking across busy streets and to make grown-up decisions.  Ergo no more excuses or rationalizing for them in the future, okay?  They are what they are, and if you don’t like what you behold the blame lies solely with them—Right there!!–those vulgarly immature people directly in front of you now who you are somewhat rudely staring at.

Compliments born of pity are worse than no compliments at all; they are the epitome of condescension.  If someone is no good at a particular activity, at the bare minimum preserve for them that last great bastion of humanity:  Pride.  Do not eviscerate someone’s pride by paying that person a “compliment” that is at best undeserved, and at its worst—patronizing and demeaning.  Better to say nothing at all than to pay a person a “compliment” that is transparently false or hyperbolic and makes the subject feel worse and more incompetent than they already did.  A striking majority of people are not guileless and wholly oblivious to their surroundings.  Thus, do not treat them as such and regale them with “compliments” that are no more sincere or deserved than a hard kick in the testicles.  These people instinctually know better, and so should you.

I no longer live my life for myself, I live it for them; I live it for my three daughters.  Honestly.  But I don’t find this behavior particularly selfless or heroic.  Rather, it just seems normal to me, behavior that any sane, centered person should also be willing and eager to embrace.  I am a big believer in the Circle of Life, that what goes round comes round.  Life itself is the most salient example of this most grandiose of theories.  We are born, we live and eventually sire offspring if we are lucky enough to survive until that requisite age and our reproductive apparatus is suitably charmed, and then we die.  And on the back side of this epochal journey, we begin focusing our attention on our progeny to a greater and greater extent.  This is only right.  No one lives forever (Irrespective of some oldsters’ selfish and uber-expensive crusades on Medicare dollars to prove otherwise!), but we CAN pass our DNA down through countless succeeding generations of humans on Earth if we are both fecund and fortunate.  Ergo that’s why the second half of anyone’s life, excepting egocentric, conceited people, should be offered up to our descendants.  In deference to the Law of Averages—the most important and magniloquent of all the laws known to mankind—these young people will outlive us on Earth’s surface, and therefore we should do everything within our humanly means to make the transition from our world to their world as smooth and enhanced as possible.

…..it was all she knew.  Being without money was all she ever knew.  So when rumors started circulating that some people actually had more than others—that their personal possessions far outstripped their basic physical needs—she was amazed by this startling revelation.  Why did certain people feel they needed more than basic necessities?  What was wrong with these individuals?  Could they not harness their greedy impulses?  Didn’t they feel guilty all the time? What did they use as their justification for cheating other disadvantaged members of humanity?  And she continued to ponder this question interminably, rolling it over and over in her brain as she futilely sought a solution.  She was perfectly happy and content living with only the bare essentials. After all, she had entered this world with nothing and she would be leaving with nothing atomic as well.  Why did the interval between these two seminal events have to be characterized by a mad dash to acquire as many objects as humanly possible, objects that could best be described as mere rental items anyway?  Why didn’t others feel the same way?  Why was greed and avarice and treachery so pervasive throughout the world?  Her chin drooped and she sighed despairingly.  These were impossible questions she knew could never be answered, at least to her satisfaction…..

Without exception, do what you say you’re gonna do.  If you talk the talk you’ve gotta walk the walk.  Understand now, you don’t havta do more than that, but NEVER EVER do less!  When you personally stand in front of the high jump pit, eye the apparatus, approximate your leg strength versus the tug of gravity, and climactically set the bar on its standards, THAT is the height you are subsequently expected to clear; you can’t and shouldn’t blame someone else at a later date for creating unrealistic prospects.  Doing that is just so fuckin’ lame!  Quite simply, be true to your word—ALWAYS!!!  That’s what makes a good person; that’s what separates paladins from assholes; that defines character; that’s what, over time, makes reputations platinum as opposed to stinky and transforms casual acquaintances into genuine lifelong friendships.  That is the lubrication that keeps the life locomotive moving fluidly along its tracks.

…..his welfare didn’t matter anymore…..her welfare didn’t matter anymore…..it was only THEIR welfare that mattered anymore, and nothing else in this small world of ours really amounted to a smattering of shit compared to their well-being and the divergent paths they would forge into the future long after his body had been incinerated and pursuantly donated to the four winds for ultimate dispersal, only to blow away and eventually settle into the third planet from the Sun’s topsoil, henceforth to serve as a trifling amount of fertilizer which future generations of earthlings might find helpful in growing the crops they will desperately need to survive, if not thrive.  And that, then, that Lilliputian inconsequential contribution, shall remain behind as his eternal, culminating gift to mankind and the only evidence that he ever existed as a living creature in a Universe practically bereft of same.  Life in the universe we human beings inhabit is not just rare. It is so unfathomably scant and meaningless that to call us a dinky sidebar when compared to all of the inorganic matter and antimatter and dark matter and dark energy and God only knows what else theoretical physicists can dream up in their fertile minds would stretch the truth outlandishly and be the epitome of hubris…..

I started a tiny rumor.  The thing grew bigger and bigger until it morphed into a veritable colossus and next spread like wildfire, engulfing everything in its destructive path.  The rumor is not tiny anymore.  The wildfire it spawned has run amok and is now arrantly out of control; a pristine reputation has been destroyed in the process.  The only residua left behind in this conflagration’s wake are scorched earth, a desiccated relationship, and massive regrets.  That’s right, massive, MASSIVE regrets.  And all the result of just one tiny rumor I was responsible for starting with no forethought as to what its exponential consequences might turn out to be.  Words do indeed have consequences—sometimes dire consequences—even if they do not literally break bones.

Whatever looks too good to be true, or seems too good to be true, or feels too good to be true…..IS too good to be true, you guileless numskull!  Always!!!  Every fuckin’ time!!!!!  There are no exceptions to this cardinal rule and there never will be either, despite the googol of meager attempts at rationalization we inevitably struggle to make to justify our naturally avaricious impulses and to partially sate our raging earthly desires.  Nothing is given free in life; you have to go out and earn everything; your birthright comes with a price tag.  To think otherwise—to think shortcuts and faux miracles will unfailingly be available to lessen our work burden and assist us in securing benefits and largesse that we have offered no personal sacrifices to deserve—is a fool’s errand and a fool’s mentality.  Intelligent persons learn this transcendent lesson at an early stage in life, while some cretins never do even if they live to be ninety years of age.  In fact, it might rightfully be said that understanding the basic equation of life outlined above IS the very definition of intelligence.

…..and the moment came and then disappeared almost instantly…..followed by the next…..and the next…..and all those moments disappeared in her wake with little fanfare and no more permanence than the misty contrail a jet airplane leaves behind high in the stratosphere to mark its ephemeral presence.  And she wondered right then about how purists always chide everyone to “Live in the moment!” and “Live life to the fullest!”  She questioned how you could live your life in “the moment” if you never even knew when that moment started and when it ended, and even though she knew for a fact that it MUST theoretically exist…..the almighty “moment” disappeared with such fleeting swiftness and elusiveness that one never had any time to actually enjoy it and make plans over what to do with this super slippery little particle of time before it disappeared and the next one magically appeared in its stead.  She knew “the moment” and “the present” were the same thing—interchangeable entities, inarguably—but in her mind the million dollar question centered on what to do with the infernal things??  Both of them—“the moment” and “the present”—were here and gone before you knew it, so “living within the moment” made no more sense to her than struggling to understand the birth of our universe or living one’s entire life with a wool blanket pulled over your head…..

…..he was visited one night in his dreams by a stern math teacher from nearly a lifetime earlier.  How eerie is that, might I ask??  And why did this incident occur at all?  He had never really liked the guy personally—he was too pompous and arrogant and full of himself to be a creditable exemplar— although Fred had to grudgingly admit the teacher in question was an astute pedagogue and a worthy practitioner of his chosen profession.  But still…..this episode made no sense, no sense whatsoever!  What of value could possibly be taken from it?  And if the answer to that question is no, what constructive purpose do dreams actually serve?  After all, that chapter in his life happened over two score ago, and to have it dredged up and involuntarily thrust upon him now in asymmetrical, nonsensical fashion when his conscious defenses were temporarily relaxing and on furlough……   The whole thing seemed utterly bizarre, and I imagine that is one of the foremost reasons why those rogue, extraneous thoughts from the night preceding last passed Board Exams with flying colors before being officially certified as gloriously cryptic nighttime dreams…..