1. On adopting the opinions of my parents:
– My mother had these sayings. “Eat everything on your plate, there are children starving in China.” To this day, I try to eat everything on my plate, except in restaurants.
2. Reading in school:
The only time I enjoyed reading was when I wasn’t in school. I didn’t enjoy reading one single thing in school – even in graduate school – – especially in graduate school.
3. Having first hand experiences:
– experimenting: I’ve smoked cigarette, pipes, cigars; drank beer, rum, and vodka; and dated girls. I gave it all up, especially when I got married.
– experiencing: I’ve experienced anger. Not one single good thing came to bare for me from getting mad. Not one. That’s why I don’t believe the Old Testament is good for me.
4. Thinking:
One Sunday after another frustrating day in Sunday School, I said, I’ve had it.” For now on out I’m done putting round pegs in square holes. It’s square pegs in square holes.” That was the day “thinking” no longer was a sin.
5. Admitting:
– I settled down emotionally when I admitted I was happy making a good amount of money.
6. Writing
– to claim the title of writer you need one quality above all others: honesty. Sometimes I’m a writer.
7. My greatest achievement:
Bringing home a paycheck for 47 years.
8. The universe:
– the scientist has a hidden bias: she thinks the universe is fixed with immutable laws that govern it. We are doomed if that is correct. It’s better to think the universe is not fixed, and has no immutable laws, that all is flexible. That way we can be creative in determining what we want to be one million years from now, and what problems we want to solve.
9. Thresholds:
I was born with thresholds:
– As a teenager I stopped smoking . . . just because.
– I watched the Sopranos faithfully, until the F word wore me out.
– I stopped drinking in college, because . . .just because.
– I stopped taking Lortab, because my prescription ran out.
– I stopped eating hamburgers at McDonalds, because I had eaten too many of them.
10. Figuring myself out:
– it’s easier figuring someone else out.
11. Cussing:
– my wife said I was cussing too much. I said maybe if she cussed a little more I would cuss a little less. It worked . . . for a while.