Life's rules

 
An e-rumour attributed the following comments to Bill Gates in an alleged speech to a group of US high school graduates. In fact they are the work of Charles Sykes and excerpted from his book 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn In School. He makes some interesting commentary on how feel-good, politically correct teachings have created a generation of kids with no concept of reality (personally I would also include respect and "fear") and how this concept sets them up for failure in the real world.

• Rule #1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

• The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

• You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

• If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

• Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping - they called it opportunity.

• If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault. So don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

• Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

• Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

• Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

• Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

• Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

 

When a soldier comes home

 
This is an excerpt of something that arrived in my email this morning - and I will admit that it would ordinarily be trashed as spam without a thought - but for some reason today I am moved by its words.

Lately I've been reflecting on life, particularly my own and it's recent dramas, trying to put some perspective on things. This was a timely reminder that just made me stop and think - not about soldiers per se or trying to draw direct comparisons with them - but more generally about how in western society most of us are preoccupied with acquiring wealth, living comfortably and "problems" that if we really think about them are rather trivial in the greater scheme of what's happening in the world.


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When a soldier comes home, he finds it hard...









...to listen to his son whine about being bored.









...to keep a straight face when people complain about potholes.









...to be tolerant of people who complain about the hassle of getting ready for work.









...to be understanding when a co-worker complains about a bad night's sleep.









...to be silent when people pray to God for a new car.









...to control his panic when his wife tells him he needs to drive slower.









...to be compassionate when a businessman expresses a fear of flying.








...to keep from laughing when anxious parents say they're afraid to send their kids off to summer camp.









...to keep from ridiculing someone who complains about hot weather.









...to control his frustration when a colleague gripes about his coffee being cold.









...to remain calm when his daughter complains about having to walk the dog.









...to be civil to people who complain about their jobs.









...to just walk away when someone says they only get two weeks of vacation a year.










...to be forgiving when someone says how hard it is to have a new baby in the house.









The only thing harder than being a soldier... is loving one.