Lessons learned in this life that I need to pass on:

• Yes Ma’am, No Sir, Please, Thank you.
• Don’t trust anyone that doesn’t bring a book.
• Use your hands, build stuff, fix things. You will screw up and learn from it. It sucks to live with a person that is un-handy. Don’t be that person.
• Be REALLY nice to old people.
• Keep a journal.
• Don’t sleep with anyone that is not a better person than you are. You might have kids with them and it will make your life suck for a VERY long time.
• You get what you pay for with most things.  Spend a little more and buy quality.  It will last and get better with age.
• Never drink and drive. Not even one beer/wine/shot.
• Never put your hands on someone else’s kids unless the child has a knife/gun and/or aims to do harm.
• Open/hold doors for people.
• Be super polite to police when stopped and even if you are being arrested.  That doesn’t mean be a chatty-Kathy though.  Admit nothing.  “do you know why I pulled you over?…”  “No Sir, I do not.”  Shut your mouth and don’t say a word the second you are taken into custody.  Miranda rights are read for a reason…
• If someone hands you a business card with a biblical quote/cross/etc., hand it back to them and walk away.  Publicly professing faith in business dealings is lure to gain your trust and that person will cheat you.
• Paint, make, build, draw, write, take amazing pictures.  Do this for you.
• Never walk into another man’s house without knocking, even if you have been there 1000 times.
• Do not walk into another woman’s kitchen and “take over”- not family, not friends, never-ever a mother-in-law.
• Learn judo. Learn to box. Get good at both and pray that you never have to use either.
• Your hands are made for showing love and working hard. Never raise a hand to the people you love.
• Learn to drive a car with a standard transmission.
• Never grab a hold of something or someone that you are not 100% sure that you can keep a hold of: a falling limb, a rock, a car, a big feller, a bull, a love, an idea, a perceived need, etc… – the older I get the more this evolves from the physical to the philosophical.
• Continental Airlines should be avoided.
• Never drop acid in a brothel.
• Play an instrument with strings. Play it as well as you can. Take lessons. Take more lessons. Play it with others.
• Do not spoil your children to the point that you handicap them in life.
• Some people love their dogs more than their kids. Do not presume that you are allowed to discipline another’s dog, but all bets are off if it bites you.
• Give to charity, help people when you can.  Do it quietly and never expect a reward or any recognition.
• Learn to sail and/or fly.  Either/both will open doors to people and places that you never knew existed.
• Never date a “10”. They are self absorbed and narcissistic. They will cheat on you and spend all your money. Fact. Will happen. Find someone with a pretty face, an education, and a sweet soul.
• Don’t not argue in public or in front any family member or children. Do not get baited into doing so. The stain will outlast the reason for the argument by a couple of decades.