As most of you who have read this blog for a while know, I used to have a terrible temper. When I first entered in-house rehab for twenty-eight days about thirty years ago, the first thing that Pam, my therapist, said to me was, “Honey? You is arrogant!”

For the last thirty years, I’ve been working, with some success, I might add, to overcome both my temper and my arrogance. Here are some thoughts that have helped. (All but the last seven of these are my own thoughts. The others I’ve borrowed from the cited sources.)

1.       Others are not here for my approval or disapproval.

2.       The only person that I can change is myself.

3.       There is always more than one way at looking at things, and there is always more than one solution to a problem.

4.       I do not have a monopoly on the true sense of what is “right” and what is “wrong”.

5.       Is somebody mixed up or stupid simply because they hold opinions that are diametrically opposed to my own?

6.       I hate when I fear. I fear when I do not understand. I do not understand when I choose not to objectively investigate.

7.       I am lessened when I choose the easier path of letting another person do my thinking for me.

8.       There is no “black and white” on any topic, just different shades of gray.

9.       Jiminy Cricket was right. (“Always let your conscience be your guide.”)

10.   When I follow a leader without question, I am often like a lemming being led over a cliff. And when I follow these leaders into the abyss, what does it profit me or the world?

11.   A leader cannot become a leader unless we, the people, allow him or her to become so.            They cannot do it without our support. Hitler rose to power with the backing of the German people, as did Gandhi, and all of the leaders of the world, including Saddam Hussein, Barack Obama and George W.  Bush and Abraham Lincoln. (Okay. Bush did it without majority of the people in both elections, but he still had a pretty strong following.) Thus, nothing that happens in the world takes place without our permission. And our permission is given actively or passively.

12.   My situation and fortune do not affect my attitude; my attitude affects my situation and fortunes. (It is a scientific fact that when a person smiles or laughs, even when the smile or laugh is a “forced” one, that person’s outlook improves markedly.)

13.   Everything that I do and feel is done by choice.

14.   The most arrogant sentence I can utter or think is, “I know that I am right.”

15.   “Feelings are never right or wrong; they just are.” – my therapist at The Suncoast Hospital Rehab Unit, Pam

16.    “You who choose to lead must follow.” – Jerry Garcia

17.   “Only fools are positive.” – My Honey

18.   “Nobody can make a doormat out of you unless you first lie down.” – My Honey

19.   “Remember that all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men (people) to do nothing.” - Edmund Burke

20.   “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again…and then give up. No sense making a damned fool of yourself!” – W.C. Fields

21.   “Everybody is entitled to his or her own stupid opinion.” – My Father

22.   “Never miss a golden opportunity to keep your fucking mouth shut.” – My Father

23.   ““We are all very ignorant, but not all ignorant of the same things." - Albert Einstein

24.   “One aw shit! wipes out a dozen atta-boys. – My Honey

25.   “You get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar…but you get the most with dead squirrels.” – Woody Harrelson on Cheers