1. It’s often faster to go slower unimpeded than to go quickly between frequent stops when traveling toward a destination. This is why some people prefer back roads to main thoroughfares, and why simple jobs are the quickest ones to complete with a high degree of quality.

2. Everyone who is a part of my life, despite the nature of his or her disposition and contribution to my own welfare, is deserving of both respect and love for the part that they have played in making me the person that I am today. From the long-deceased patriarch who probably didn’t think very highly of me to that one member of the family who only ever sought to cause trouble amongst the rest when things didn’t go her way, the high school bullies, the ones who called me fat, geek, nerd, twerp, dork, fag, loser, etc., the ones who inflated their tiny little egos at the expense of my own and then hit me up on Facebook later in life saying, “remember what fun we had together as kids?” Not to mention the so-called friend who abandoned me and acted like I didn’t exist when he drove past me one day when I was walking down the road carrying a vacuum cleaner; I guess he was always too cool for me, but it’s hard to hold a grudge in light of the idea that I owe my sheer awesomeness not only to those who celebrated it at one time or another, but those who stepped on me, who used me, abused me, and otherwise wronged me in life. Furthermore, with this realization I have unlocked the bonus realization that in the long run, they failed to damage me, whether that was their intent or not; they didn’t wrong me – they actually righted me! Bonus realization number two: not having this knowledge, I never realized before that everything bad that ever happened to me was my fault by faulty perception, and if a “bad thing” served the purpose of making me awesome, then was it ever bad at all? If I can keep calm and carry on with aplomb, then is everything truly good? I think that is so.