Ten bits of truth for my grandchildren, with hope they’ll give them some thought.
- Don’t sweat the small stuff, and it’s all small stuff. This is my pet cliche. Don’t get sucked into radical and blinkered views of the world. Be bold. Be yourself. And remember — a scrap of irreverence is healthy and critical at times.
- Take care of both your body and your mind. One won’t work without the other.
- When someone pisses you off, always stop to consider what might be going on that’s made them behave badly. Step away. Wait a week or a month, and then ask yourself if you’re still angry.
- Never let go of your dreams. You may need to shelve them for a while — to be comfortable, to earn a living. But keep a tiny flame burning somewhere in your being, even when the firetruck of life threatens to douse it.
- Learn to cook. It not only feeds you, but nourishes your existence with a combination of instructions, ingredients, and an opportunity to experiment or be wildly creative if the mood strikes. You may have to eat your mistakes.
- Treat older people with respect. It may not seem likely, but they’ve gone through similar things that plague your life today, and they have lived through them, and sometimes they’ve learnt lessons you might find useful.
- Look to history. Don’t ignore the issues of the day, but remember that injustice, crises, wars — all the miseries of now are nothing new. They crop up repeatedly throughout the ages, like reruns of a stale TV series. You cannot fix the world, but you can do small things that make incremental changes for the better.
- Don’t condemn the mistakes of your parents’ generation. Errors are easy to see in hindsight. In twenty-five years, young people will judge your era, and it may be you in the dock.
- Laugh. Not just a giggle. Make time for a big belly laugh as often as possible. Seek out people who nurture this. It’s not only fun, it’s necessary. And don’t worry if others criticize you for it. If they don’t know how to laugh properly, pity them.
- Be grateful. Open your eyes each morning and thank the stars and the moon and the land and the sea for your warm dry home and fridge full of food. Never feel guilty about good fortune, but make note of how much worse it is for others in the world.