Wear not the shoes given by the rhyming yammering Chuck with his Tide cleaned suit
Disregard the contempt of bored and boring factory laborers who fail
Embrace the field worker who ignores
Stand in line at the grocery store and grin, try to get everyone jacked about what fortune you all have
Quit bitching about the weather when you see it on TV
Enjoy fresh produce
Be the idiot cheering in the alley when the sirens go off and for the first time in five years, the rain goes sideways across the little basement window you peek out of with your battery powered radio
Lick your toast if you want, there is no book about how to eat it that has widespread support
Seal away parts of what you see and let them out when you are camping
Sleep on the ground more than once in a while
Grow suspicious of beds
Gear up for an imaginary epic adventure
Tell your brain to shut up the moment you wake and lay there a moment appreciating the song of birds and traffic
Wash your face with bare hands and water, and throw your head back to laugh now and then with wet hair
Grow tired when you need to, then sleep
Gain hunger and exhaust it with ceremony and reverence
Help somebody carry a bunch of heavy shit as randomly as possible, and turn away any reward or compensation, do not explain. Do this at least once
If you see somebody very angry begin to fight an innocent, stand ninety degrees from his line of attack and fire the heel of your foot into his knee. Then stoop to offer aid, and transport the villain to a doctor if needed, but do not anger at any point
Reassure any victims and give any bread you have
Give fresh fruit as a gift, give vegetables as a gift
Eat the flesh of any animal with quiet gratitude and ceremony, do not protest the death of animals by sending their flesh to a landfill. Embrace a diet that is in harmony with you, and embrace the way of living that builds the most hope, revere any life you encounter
Shower fully clothed, and hang the outfit to dry, our water is precious
Help somebody clean up a mess they made
If somebody greets you, hand them pineapples
If somebody angers you, devote your immediate attention to the fundamentals of arithmetic until the shadow passes then say something hopeful and positive, but guard your chin and monitor their knees
Play to the ego of any policeman, or any armed personnel
Agree with one politician, somewhere
Respect a mother
Protect a child
Disagree with what you must, openly
Discover your faults and evict them. Never stop doing this regardless of its apparent futility
Sit with your pets in the dark, watch what they watch, and try to smell or move as they do
Paint, draw, or otherwise find some way to allow that part of you to speak up
Read a book from time to time, but don’t be a dick about it
Practice a skill, and always marvel at any display of practiced skill
Be floored by talent, and find out what your own talents are
Make a life deliberately, whatever its form
Write down things you’d like to do
Write to friends
Write to strangers
Accept charity
Give charity
Show your teeth, in anger or in joy
Floss your teeth
Wait patiently, and listen to the dentist
Turn off the water while you brush
Be decent
Define decency through your own effort
Carefully, over many years.
But don’t be a dick about any of it.
The Jath Blog 