Robert Heinlein, the father of science fiction, almost certainly didn’t consider excerpts from the notebooks of his most famous character, Lazarus Long, “resolutions.” He denied they were wisdom, for that matter. But his approach to life has colored so many of my attitudes about so many things, and what he wrote in “Time Enough for Love” (1973) is better advice than anything I could ever think up myself.
So, with hat tipped to the late Mr. Heinlein, who is, I hope, bellied up to a bar somewhere in Boondock, I give you these borrowed words to live by at the beginning of 2013:
◊Certainly the game is rigged. Don’t let that stop you; if you don’t bet, you can’t win.
◊Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why. Then do it.
◊Delusions are often functional. A mother’s opinions about her children’s beauty, intelligence, goodness, etc., ad nauseam, keep her from drowning them at birth.
◊If you don’t like yourself, you can’t like other people.
◊Avoid making irrevocable decisions while tired or hungry. (Circumstances can force your hand. So think ahead!)
◊A woman is not property, and husbands who think otherwise are living in a dreamworld.
◊A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
◊The more you love, themore you can love - and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love.
◊You live and learn. Or you don’t live long.
◊Do not handicap children by making their lives easy.
◊Always tell her she is beautiful, especially if she is not.
◊Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget, awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity.
◊Another ingredient for a happy marriage: Budget the luxuries first!
◊And still another: See to it that she has her own desk - then keep your hands off it!
◊And another: In a family argument, if it turns out you are right - apologize at once!
◊Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily.
All other “sins” are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful - just stupid.) Becca Martin-Brown is an awardwinning columnist and Features editor for NWA Media. She can be reached by email at bmartin@ nwaonline.com.
Style, Pages 30 on 01/03/2013