10 Great First Lines...

So?  What's the best first line of a novel?  Here are 10 of my favorites:

• "My wound is geography."  Pat Conroy- The Prince of Tides

• "At night I would lie in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the cracks in my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room, making that propeller sound, a high-pitched zzzzzz that hummed along my skin."  Sue Monk Kidd – The Secret Life of Bees 

• "The evening his master died he worked again well after he ended the day for the other adults, his own wife among them, and sent them back with hunger and tiredness to their cabins."  Edward Jones – The Known World

• "In our family there was no clear line between religion and fly-fishing."  Norman Maclean – A River Runs Through It

• "I can see by my watch, without taking my hand from the left grip of the cycle, that it is eight-thirty in the morning."  Robert Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

• "In later years, holding forth to an interviewer or to an audience of aging fans at a comic book convention, Sam Clay liked to declare, apropos of his and Joe Kavalier’s greatest creation, that back when he was a boy, sealed and hog-tied inside the airtight vessel known as Brooklyn, New York, he had been haunted by dreams of Harry Houdini."  Michael Chabon - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

• "‘To be born again,’ sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, ‘first you have to die.’"  Salman Rushdie – The Satanic Verses

• "It is not a heart: light, heavy, kind or broken; dear, hard, bleeding or transparent; it is not a heart."  Tom Robbins – Even Cowgirls Get The Blues

• "This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it."  William Goldman – The Princess Bride 

• "When Mr Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton." JRR Tolkien – The Lord of the Rings

American Book Review published their list of the best 100 first lines here.

And here are Schmoop's top 25.

In The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr...

In honor of MLK day I collected all the MLK quotes that were in my Facebook Newsfeed today.  Here is what my friends and I think is important to remember:

• Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?' 
• I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.
• ‎Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it. 
• The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
• Nobody else can do this for us.  No document can do this for us.  No Lincolnian Emancipation Proclamation or Johnsonian Civil Rights Bill can totally bring this kind of freedom, [the Black man] will only be free when he reaches down to the inner depths of his own being and signs with the pen and ink of assertive manhood his own Emancipation Proclamation.  And, with a spirit straining toward true self-esteem, [Blacks] must boldly throw off the manacles of self-abnegation, and say to himself and to the world, ‘I am somebody. I am a person.  I am a man with dignity and honor.  I have a rich and noble history.'
• And of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites, polar opposites, so that love is identified with resignation of power, and power with the denial of love ... Now we have got to get this thing right. What is needed is the realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love. And this is what we must see as we move on.
• On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' And Vanity comes along and asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But Conscience asks the question 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right.
• Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.” “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
• Love is the most durable power in the world. This creative force is the most potent instrument available in mankind's quest for peace and security." 
• An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. 
• The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.
• Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and consciencious stupidity. 
• Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. 
• Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.
• Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" Vanity asks the question, "Is it popular?" But, conscience asks the question, "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right. 
• ‎Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.'
• In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. 
• I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live. 
• ‎Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.
• Full Text of “I have a dream…” Speech, August 28, 1963

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

For more quotes and pictures visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. Family Life Center

"Pearls" from Stan Dale

I am very lucky to have found a friend, mentor and teacher named Stan Dale (1929-2007).  Almost every thing Stan said was worth thinking about. And much of who I am is as a result of listening to Stan.  Here's a small sampling:

• Fantasies can set you free.
• There are no rules for jumping into the “new.”  No one's ever been there before.
• If not now, when?
• I know you, you're just like me.
• It all changed when I realized I'm not the only one on the planet who's scared. Everyone else is, too.
• All endings automatically equal new beginnings.
• Comfort zones are plush lined coffins. When you stay in your plush lined coffins, you die.
• Children are not horses that need to be broken.
• Welcome home to your heart.
• You can't lose your temper.
• Have your emotions, don't let your emotions have you.
• Loving yourself starts with loving yourself.
• No one can make you do anything you will not do (not even at the point of a gun).
• Our experience is not the result of our circumstances, it is the result of our thoughts about our circumstances.
• A wonderful way to wake up-kiss your partner's feet and heart. It only takes a couple of minutes.
• Awareness plus experience equals potency.
• Bless your former partners for all they have taught you.
• Love and like have nothing to do with each other.
• There is either love or violence. 
• There is no behavior called love (only loving type behavior).
• Love is not an emotion. It's a choice.
• All human behavior is either an act of love or a cry for love.
• Permission is one the most powerful psychic forces we know. When you are given permission to be intelligent, creative, or unafraid, you are far more likely to do so, than if you forge ahead on your own.
• Permission could be called encouragement or "I believe in you".
• We do not own our children. They have been entrusted to our care for the youthful period of their lives not their adult lives.
• Why let someone you don’t know, like Freud, etc. label your sexuality?
• If you want a label how about naturosexual - naturally sexual.
• Every second we each get a second chance.
• Fear is a negative fantasy.
• Most people in our culture are adrenalin addicts. Adrenalin is more powerful than heroin.
• Stop shoulding on yourself.
• You are who you think you are.  But who you think you are is not really who you are, you are much more magnificent than you think.
• The awesome power of fantasy is awesome.
• Is that thought or belief serving you?
• Are you looking for the obvious?
• Intimacy = In to Me You See
• QTIP = Quit Taking it Personally
• A man would rather jump out of a plane attached to a bit of fabric than say I love you
• Tell me you love me; that's nice. Tell me the truth and I know you love me.
• What is SEX? Sacred Energy eXchange. Spiritual Energy eXchange. Senusual Energy eXchange.
• Who said so, and why did you believe them?
• The paradox is you have to be potent to be vulnerable. And you have to be vulnerable to be potent.
• Your parents are just a little boy and a little girl who had sex one day, and nine months later you came along.
• Don't worship at the alter of your emotions.
• Every parent to child transaction (looking down shaking finger at child) will elicit a child to parent response (looking up at parent, flipping him/her off)
• Fear, the dirtiest four letter word
• Love is like the sun - it shines 24 hours a day, whether you notice it or not
• Love is the answer. What is the question?
• If love isn't your message, what is?
• If you don't go within, you'll go without.
• Violence is a cry for love.
• Please don't hold back your tears because they wash both of us clean

Are You an A**hole?

Awhile back I read an interview with Carol Bartz, Yahoo CEO (in the May 2010 issue of Esquire).   She said “I don’t work with assholes.  Are you one?”

IMHO this is both a great question and a really a**hole question.  I mean, who but an a**hole asks people if they're an a**hole?  And is anyone so much of an a**hole that they'd answer "yes"?  And is Bartz such an a**hole that she can't tell if you are?

OK, maybe I'm taking this too literally?  Maybe she really means "Don't be an a**hole."  Now that's advice I can really get behind.

-The freeway is jammed.  The guy on your right decides he needs to be in your lane.  Now.  Don't be an a**hole.  Let him in.  Let him get home one car length sooner than you.

-You're in line for the cashier with a full shopping cart.  The person behind you is holding three items and two kids.  Don't be an a**hole.  Let her go ahead of you.

-You've been looking for a parking spot or about five minutes when one opens up a bit ahead of you.  As you ease towards it someone from the opposite direction just flies into it.  Let it go.  Don't be an a**hole.  Sh*t happens.

-In the above, don't be that a**hole who just takes the spot without regard for whoever has been waiting longer.

You get the idea.  Think of it as a guideline for a happy life - Don't be an a**hole.

The Right Time to Kiss Your Date

RULE 1:  There is no “right time” to kiss someone you know you don’t like.

A kiss is a statement.  A kiss says “I think I like you, maybe even care about you, am potentially interested in you, want to know you better”.   When we kiss someone we don’t like, we are telling a lie. 

RULE 2:  A kiss is an intimate act. 

Intimacy, say the word aloud and it sounds like IN-TO-ME-YOU-SEE.  If you feel unsafe, guarded, walled up, self-hating, then the kiss is a waste of time.    If you are pretending to be cool, pretending to be more sexually experienced than you are, pretending to be the person you think s/he would want to kiss, then the kiss is a waste of time.  Let him/her really see you.  Be real.   Be yourself.  You are enough.

RULE 3:  A kiss is a bio-chemical test.

Scientists actually study kissing (the field is called philematology).  Scientists are exploring the links between the behavior (kissing) and changes in our brain chemistry, including reduced cortisol (stress hormone), increased oxytocin (bonding hormone), released endorphins (ecstasy hormone), and more.  Unconsciously, our kisses tell our brain about fertility and estrogen levels, as well as information about our immune systems.  There’s also evidence that swapping saliva is a way to increase (slightly) testosterone levels, which often increases libido.  And all this is happening below the level of conscious thought!

If you don’t like his/her smell, or you just don’t want to kiss, even though there’s no good reason not to, pay attention. If the biochemistry is wrong, your body will tell you by having you feel disinterested or even creeped out.   If the biochemistry is right, desire will be present.

RULE 4:  Feeling an almost overwhelming urge to kiss someone is a great time to kiss.

Attraction is really complex.  There’s psychology, and brain chemistry, and scent, and all kinds of things fueling our sense attraction.  Analysis is paralysis!  While you are trying to figure out why you are attracted, you are probably killing the moment.  Trust that the reason you want to kiss isn’t as important as the feeling that you want to kiss.

RULE 5:  Desire is most often an aphrodisiac.

You want to be wanted.  So does s/he.  I know that there is lot of advice out there about “playing it cool” or “playing hard to get”, but by and large, “playing” anything is a losing strategy.  Let your date know that you feel desire for him/her.  Ask if s/he feels it, too.  Then move your faces closer and say something direct like “I really want to kiss you right now.”   If s/he says something like “Yeah, me too,” then kiss.

RULE 6:  Kissing without consent is one of those things that you see in the movies or you’ve gotten away with in the past, that is, in fact, a kind of violation.  Don’t do it.

So, when is the right time for this kiss?  As soon as you notice that you like this person and would like to share your time, feelings, energy, etc., it’s time to kiss.  As soon as you get up the nerve to ask, and s/he says yes, it’s time to kiss.    Sometimes it happens the moment you meet.  Sometimes it happens as you talk.  Sometimes it happens as you dance. 

If it hasn’t happened by the time you are saying goodnight, and you want it to happen, go ahead, take the risk, ask for the kiss.

Gunner's Code, part 2

31.             What you look for, that’s mostly what you wind up finding.

32.             Injustice requires people of good character to say nothing and do nothing.

  

33.             When you realize you’ve dug yourself right into a hole, the first thing to do stop digging.

34.             Cultivate gratitude.  It’s not money or possessions or prestige that makes life worth living, it’s being

35.             “Making love” and “having sex ”are not the same things.  They both have their delights, but given the choice, you can build a life on the first one.

36.             The person that has the problem is the person that has the solution.  Others can help you gain perspective, but only you can solve your problems.

37.             Wash your hands.  When you think about everything your hands have touched today, do you really want to smear that on her?

38.             If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

39.             Feelings are like icebergs, what you see is the 10% on the surface.  Take the time to discover the 90% that isn’t showing.

40.          Most of the big lessons in this life are simple, but few are easy.

41.          I’m not a “friend” to the herd, and I won’t be herded by my “friends”.

42.          Fix problems, not people.

43.          My Dad always said: “Never wrestle with a pig.  You both get covered in sh_t, and the pig likes it.”

44.          Sad but true: show me a good-looking woman and I’ll show you a guy that’s tired of doing her. 

45.          Lots of times it’s my “Boy Scout” training that serves best.  That oath still applies.

  

46.          There are two kinds of people: people who think there’s two kinds of people and people who don’t.

47.          It’s true what they say: fortune favors the bold.

48.          It’s often hard to tell the difference between falling and flying…until the landing.

49.          We’re all in this together and we’re each in this alone, and nobody is going to get out alive.

50.          Mostly, sleep is over-rated.  You’ll sleep a long time when you’re dead.

51.          If God meant us to spend our lives alone He only would have made one person in the first place.

52.          In the movies, a fast way to show a character is angry is to have him get in a fist-fight.  In life, a fast way to demonstrate your immaturity and general lack of good sense is to get into a fist-fight.

53.          Everyone has an off-day now and again.

54.          It’s OK to feel angry, hurt, sad, frightened and/or ashamed.  Humans are born with the circuitry to feel these things hard-wired into our brain.  Trying to not feel them will only make things worse.

55.          If you want to be able to rely on it, then you had better take care of it.

56.          By and large, freedom isn’t free.

57.          After you get all done assigning the blame you’ve still got to fix the problem.

58.          Fix problems not people.

59.          Just because a billion flies like to eat sh_t doesn’t mean you have to.

60.          Sometimes, if you can just ignore it, it will pass.  Then other times, it just isn’t going to get better ‘til you get up and fix it.  Try one approach.  If it doesn’t work, try the other.

61.          Want to stop standing at the bar watching and waiting?  Learn to dance.

62.          Really important travel isn’t usually about getting somewhere it’s about getting to someone.

63.          “Lonely” is just “alone” plus “BS”.

64.          Aspiring to be “normal” is setting the bar way too low.

65.          Everybody poops.  That hot girl at the bar, that cowboy in the hand-tooled boots, the preacher, your mother, everybody.  I’m just sayin’.

66.          I learn a lot about a person from their handshake.  I learn more from their hug.

Gunner’s Code

1.  The only rules are stuff like gravity and inertia.  Go ahead, try to disobey gravity.  Everything else is just suggestions and guidelines.

2. It’s never too late to go back and apologize.  But it’ll be a lot better if you don’t wait very long to do it.

3.  Everybody likes getting flowers.

4.  Everyone is trying his/her best.  Hard to believe, but there it is.  That “idiot” you’re honking at is really driving just as good as he can.  Your Dad, your Mom, that was actually the best they could do.

5.  It’s simple:  if they’re driving faster than you they are maniacs, if they’re going slower than you, they’re morons.

6.  Before they start dealing the cards take a long hard look at each player at the table.  If you can’t spot the chump, it’s you.

7.  No woman ever dated guy who yelled, whistled, made obscene gestures at her as he drove by.

8.  If you don’t see how pretty she is right now, just wait ‘til closing time.

9.  You could complain, but I bet it wouldn’t help anything.

10.  If you’re not livin’ out on the edge, you’re probably taking up too much space.

11.  Half of all the Doctors and Lawyers and Contractors and Plumbers – half of everybody – are below average.  Think about it.

12.  If you don’t wash the car before you show up, you don’t think highly enough of my daughter to take her out.

13. All women are beautiful.  If you can’t see it, it’s a failure of your vision.

14.  Every woman you meet is somebody’s daughter.   I have a daughter – apple of my eye.  ‘Nuff said.

15.  It takes a real man to be vulnerable.  Any bozo can put on armor.  Real men aren’t afraid to take that armor off.

16.  When you’re not sure what to do, put the gun down.

17.  The only time your finger belongs on the trigger is when the very next thing you’re going to do is fire.

18.  If you don’t know how, there’s no shame in asking.

19.  Either your horse is going with your plan or you’re going with your horse’s plan.

20.  It doesn’t need a bigger hammer, it needs more tools.

21.  The race isn’t always to the swift, but you’d be a fool to bet it any other way.

22.  If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, whatever it actually is, your best bet is to treat it like a duck.

23.  Saying a thing louder doesn’t make it truer.

24.  Trust your heart. 

25.  Power and force are different.  Power empowers others.  Force doesn’t.

26.  You can’t diminish the power of the words “I love you” except by not saying it when it’s true or saying it when it isn’t.

27.  The heart is like no other machine.  Sometimes the only way you can know if it’s working is by letting it get broken.

28.  They’re going to put something on your tombstone.  Do you really want it to be “We never really knew him all that well”?

29.  Go ahead and laugh.  Living in this world you have to see that God has a heck of a sense of humor.

30.  Everything in this Universe is constantly changing.  Everything.