Here's My Advice

I’m allowing myself one paragraph.

Ignore your baser instincts. Resist the calls of couch, television, and distraction. Fight for what you recognize as best for you. Don’t be tempted by fate (or what passes for it), out-dated responses and beliefs, or the siren songs of situation comedy, celebrity lifestyles, and elusive fashion. Avoid the reruns, pay no attention to the men behind the curtain, stop listening to Rod Stewart, the Eagles, and MTV. Shade your eyes against the glare of fear and imagine that heaven is here, in this moment, and that you have a part to play in making it. Sing the praises of ornithology, a good cheeseburger, and a beer. Celebrate the jokes of your friends, their heartaches, and their hopes for tomorrow. Create a new tune to be carried forth by bees, buddies, and the next email. Declare a holiday. Insist on goodness. Lead a cheer for discovery. Demand honesty. Manifest imagination. Encourage new species. Stimulate excitement. Inspire reality. Rally the down-hearted. Awaken longing and expectation. Revive forgotten dreams. Embrace the moment and each other. Empathize with the flowers. Embody what you want to see. Assemble like-minded amateurs. Harness the energy of willingness. Emphasize the melody. Discontinue guilt, shame, and embarrassment. Defy tradition. Unite all hope. Bring about cooperation. Holler at the headlines. Accommodate the paradox. Revise the paradigm. Present the forgotten and disregarded. Soothe the savage feast. Entreat the blank facades. Shake up the sediment. Juxtapose the isolated. Humor the humorless. Open all doors and windows. Call forth all secrets. Clarify the clutter. Respect the elders. Respect experience. Listen for clues. Hand out ideas and inspirations as if they were candy. Guide the innocent. Disarm the grumpy. Take hold of each other. Greet grief with understanding and patience. Generate passion. Benefit the benevolent. Kick start the kindness. Glean all joy and focus it. Enervate the doodad. Exult the whim-wham. Elevate the knick-knack. Let geegaws flourish.