Posts by Pat:
Rule Number 6
Rule #6 is one of the fundamental rules of life…Do you know what it is? Have you read The Art of Possibility by Benjamin Zander? If not, you should!
Two prime ministers are sitting in a room discussing affairs of state. Suddenly a man burst in, apoplectic with fury, shouting and stamping and banging his fist on the desk. The resident prime minister admonishes him: “Peter,” he says, “kindly remember Rule Number 6,” whereupon Pater is instantly restored to complete calm, apologizes, and withdraws.
The politicians return to their conversation, only to be interrupted yet again twenty minutes later by a hysterical woman gesticulating wildly, her hair flying. Again the intruder is greeted with the words: “Marie, please remember Rule Number 6.” Complete calm descends once more and she too withdraws with a bow and an apology.
When the scene is repeated for the third time, the visiting prime minister addresses his colleague: “My dear friend, I’ve seen many things in my life, but never anything as remarkable as this. Would you be willing to share with me the secret of Rule Number 6?”
“Very simple,” replies the resident prime minister. “Rule Number 6 is ‘Don’t take yourself so g–damn seriously.”
“Ah,” says his visitor, “that is a fine rule.” After a moment of pondering, he inquires, “And what, may I ask are the other rules?”
“There aren’t any.”
(story told by Benjamin Zander in his book The Art of Possibility)
In a world of so much information, so much data, so many lists and priorities, it is nice to only have to remember one rule!
In other words, life is so much better and satisfying if you live it with as much transparency and sincerity and, above all, humor, as possible. And that you laugh at yourself…a lot! Actually, don’t laugh at yourself, laugh with yourself.
As Oscar Wilde said
Life is too important to be taken seriously.
The map is not the territory
We often confuse our map with the territory. But there is a difference between the actual world and our perception of the world, just like between the roadmap and what it intends to represent. As Alfred Korzbybski (scientist and philosopher who introduced this concept in a paper in 1931) pointed out, maps always come with […]
The Gap or the Gain?
Setting goals and moving towards them can either cause us happiness or unhappiness, depending on our perspective. (And our perspective is our choice!) The goals we aim toward are always somewhere between us and the horizon. The concept of the horizon is useful to figure out a direction and to plan a destination, but we […]
Was the story wrong?
The real-life retelling inspired by actual events loosely based on the alleged true story previously dramatized… So…what is true? Back in 1964, Kitty Genovese was stabbed in New York in the middle of the night. What I remember from my college psychology class was that the New York Times newspaper story reported that none of […]
Drop by drop…
When a project seems too big, it’s easy for me to get discouraged from even starting it. Buddha’s wisdom is a good reminder to me to start with tiny steps, with what seem to be just drops. Back in my younger days, I used to get all fired up and want to get everything done […]
Remember Burma Shave signs?
To my Old-As-Dirt friends and relatives! (and for those who never saw any of the Burma Shave signs… Those of us whose parents took us on road trips before the interstate system will appreciate this little bit of history. I used to love seeing these Burma Shave sayings. The company was sold in 1963 and […]
Today is tomorrow’s yesterday…
What we do today will either enhance or diminish our future present moments. But most people put things off until tomorrow. We thoughtlessly forgo exercise and education, go into debt, and justify negative relationships. But at some point, it all catches up. Like an airplane off-course, the longer we wait to correct it the longer […]
So what’s my question?
A flower doesn’t stop being beautiful just because somebody walks by without noticing it. The flower just continues to be its glorious self: elegant, graceful, and magnificent. Mother Nature has provided us with these immeasurably valuable teachers that blossom despite their short lifespan, stars that continue to shine even if we fail to notice them, […]
What Jefferson Really Meant
When you talk with folks about happiness, they often quote Thomas Jefferson’s famous line from the Declaration of Independence about eveyone being entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” We’ve been conditioned to believe that happiness is something for us to pursue. But that’s not what Jefferson really meant by the pursuit of […]
Need another reason?
A story from the famed basketball coach George Raveling resonates with me about an invaluable lesson from his grandmother who had raised him. “Why did the slave masters hide their money in books, George?” she asked him when he was a young boy. “I don’t know, grandma, he said. “Because they knew the slaves wouldn’t […]