This Excellent Adventure

"Be excellent to one another." Bill and Ted said it best. This is the Golden Rule, and every religion on Earth espouses this basic tenet. Robert Fulgham fleshed out this concept in his famous "All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" essay. It's a non-denominational postulate for the calculus of life. Imagine the heartache avoided by considering your fellow human. There's always somebody downstream, and it scales to every decision one could make.

Here's a few BAD examples seen on the job: Run a red light into another car, angrily kick your pregnant girlfriend in the stomach, drink and drive, neglect to change your smoke alarm's battery. Self interest + disregard = bad stuff.

Savor your awesome existence Everything you see is a miracle. The universe is so impossibly huge and empty, and our world so insignifi- cant in that humongous void - how can you not be awestruck? I don't care how you think we got here, it's still mind-bendingly crazy-weird.

Consider: A 0230 man-down (probably a sleeping drunk) call beneath the glow of the milky way. Babies born in aid cars. The physiology of digestion and metabolism (look it up). Good Samaritans and passersby. Seek the beauty.

Take care of you and yours. Your family, friends and self are all you get in this life. You get one shot. Why would you choose to screw it up? Yet people make bad choices every day about their loved ones or their health.

Eschew: Drug and alcohol abuse. Materialism. Elder neglect. Child abuse. Overeating. Anorexia. Smoking. Hoarding. Gambling. Foster health.

Play nice, love life, take care.