- Coffee is best served piping hot. Even in summer, when iced coffee comes into fashion. Coffee served moderately warm or — forbid! — lukewarm is intolerable.
- Good coffee has a flavor all its own though it is an acquired taste. If you are tempted to put excessive amounts of cream and/or sugar into your coffee, it’s worth double checking to make sure you are not, in fact, simply drinking bad coffee.
- Education matters — and sometimes, so does the piece of paper. It is, of course, a good thing to be skilled, competent, and useful in the world. But sometimes it’s not enough just to have the skill or the competency. As a practical matter, sometimes you need the piece of paper that formally verifies your competency to the world. This is particularly important if you’re a member of a demographic whose competency is frequently dismissed and undervalued out of hand.
- It’s okay if sometimes people are angry with you. This is not license to be cruel or thoughtless. Rather, sometimes in the very reasonable acts of exercising self respect and self care, other people will brush up against some boundaries they wish you didn’t have. You are not obligated to take responsibility for their anger, nor are you obligated to move your boundaries to appease them.
- Exercise can be gentle. Going for a moderate walk or swimming some relaxed laps in the pool are not inferior activities to running sprints or training to swim the English Channel. What matters is that you like it and that it’s an activity you look forward to.
- Yes, you really can have too many lipsticks. And purses. And earrings. And pairs of shoes. If you cannot recognize it as yours when looking at it, this is probably a good sign that you don’t need it anymore — or never needed it to begin with.
- There are two kinds of people in this world: those who will survive the zombie apocalypse and those who won’t. Have you carefully studied your George A. Romero?
Movie art from Night of the Living Dead. Image in public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.
