Advice to Self

Today, I found myself thinking about this clipping on my bulletin board at work.  It's been hanging there for 10 years now, and I don't think I've looked at it in maybe 5.  I found it underneath other notes, quotes, and cartoons I've tacked up over the years.  

This bulletin board reminder to myself is particularly sweet, though, because of the words from the newspaper "In Memoriam" piece, and because a friend (Mariette) (a) was thoughtful enough to photocopy the article and give it to me with her handwritten note (so faded it's hard to read now); and (b) because she thought (based on what she knew of me) that these "principles of life" would resonate with me.

I'm particularly fond of #2:  "Don't take yourself or your problems too seriously.  If you do this, instead of being the 'specter at the feast,' you'll be constantly sought out even as you're passing away."  What I like is that image of a "specter at the feast."  A specter (sometimes spelled "spectre") is an apparition, a ghost.  The specter at the feast is "something or someone that spoils your enjoyment by making you remember something unpleasant."  In two words:  stop complaining.  

Here are a couple of questions for you to think about (because I'm thinking about these questions myself):  (1) Do you act like the specter at the feast of life?  Are you spoiling your own joy or the joy of others?  (2) When was the last time you were thoughtful enough to clip out an article and send it to someone because you thought that person would appreciate it or because reading it made you think of that person?  

Mariette's birthday is this week.  I haven't seen or talked to her in years, but I think I'll clip something she might like and send it along.  Maybe it will add some joy to her feast.