Honor Is The Gift You Give Yourself, Which No Man Can Take Away

Yeah, I stole that title from the film "Rob Roy". Still, it's a pretty good plan. As you grow up, you can create your own moral code, or modify one that you like from a particular religion or social group.

As a Norse Wiccan in a predominantly Christian Lodge of Masons, I have a somewhat peculiar moral code, as I allow myself to do anything that Odin did. Nevertheless, my moral code also includes things like telling the truth and keeping my word. When you have nothing else in life, a moral code is something you can still value.

One thing in my moral code is "Don't steal, unless it's worth it". Every man has his price, and mine is pretty high. I've seen so many people get busted for stealing small sums of money and property that the risk/reward ratio just doesn't make sense. Over $500,000, though, and I'll take a shot at stealing it.

I'd also say "Don't cheat on your girlfriend", but if that's the sort of thing that you need to be reminded of, you're probably not with the right girlfriend anyway.

You're not special.

You're special to your mom and I, and to your friends and relatives, and to whoever you're sleeping with, but to Nature, and Mankind, and The Universe, you're beneath contempt. You're a food source. It doesn't matter if you went to Harvard. 28,000 people go to Harvard every year.

The only way to be good at something, to get a brief glimpse of "special", is to work your fucking ass off at it. Usually you'll be working for free, or at starvation wages, and you'll probably never make the cover of Time magazine anyway, because there's always someone out there who was born faster, smarter, and luckier than you. But you can catch that glimpse, for however long it lasts, if you work at it.

And that glimpse can be phenomenal. Some people spend their whole lives chasing that dragon. Doing what you love is a huge part of life, and most people never get that glimpse. One hint: Work with your friends.

Want to play guitar? Be a car mechanic? Dig up dinosaurs? Go for it. You've got about as much chance as anyone else to be able to do it successfully. And you may be able to do it well and discover that it sucks. Welcome to life.

There's no such thing as job safety anymore, anyway, so worrying about a career in a field you don't really care about makes less sense than ever.

Huh? Oh, a magazine is like a 3-dimensional website, except the content never changes. "Time Magazine" used to have important people on the cover. I'm not sure if they're still around, because nobody cares about print anymore.