1. If you don’t dust, it will be waiting for you later.
2. You’re not listening if you’re mentally disagreeing while the other person talks.
3. Sitting under a tree looking at a body of water is better for your soul than a sermon.
4. Washing dark clothes with whites does not cause the apocalypse.
5. As the members of each generation die, the next generation comes closer to the finish line. And so on.
6. The slam of a wooden screen door as you run into the back yard on a summer morning doesn’t sound the same after you grow up.
7. Don’t tell me about your god; tell me how you treated your family and friends last week.
8. Throwing snow on an overheated car radiator is not as good an idea as it sounds like it would be.
9. I’ve reached the point where I look at pictures from my teens and wish I had realized how attractive I would have been if I’d believed in myself.
10. People who insist rap isn’t music annoy me even though I don’t like rap.
11. I believe in elves, fairies, and Bigfoot.
12. The tarot card I am the most wary of is “Justice;”  I want Mercy, not justice–but that’s not a tarot card.
13. Naming your strengths and talents isn’t bragging.
14. I may be too late in learning that the mental, the intellectual and the physical parts of a person are intimately intertwined.
15. Very few chores are more important than spending time with family or friends.
16. Occam’s Razor. Use it frequently.
17. I spent years practicing to sit on Johnny Carson’s couch, next to Ed. Now I want to know if I could make Colbert truly laugh.
18. Many women spend years balancing between being Scarlett and Melanie. The women to avoid are the ones who tip the scales in either direction.
19. Don’t believe someone who says they like every kind of music or every type of books or movies; either their experience or taste is so limited that they don’t see the world outside of it.
20. Gas pumps should not play music, regardless whether I like the tune.
21. The advice from the movie Risky Business is wisdom worthy of Yoda, Buddha, and Jesus.
22. Personality traits are not gender-specific. The terminology we use to describe those traits, however, often differs by gender.
23. The Beatles were wrong. You need more than love.
24. When it’s 3 am, the clock is ticking and you can’t sleep, the mythologies you believe are more important than the truths you know.
25. The cat is both alive and dead. Accept it.
26. Self-esteem that is based on overcoming failure is far better than the tissue paper self-esteem fostered by happy face stickers and inflated grades.
27. We need people who are passionate about one or two things, no matter how arcane or off the beaten path the topic may be.
28. I require a trickster god.
29. Roseanne didn’t jump the shark; it was post-modernist in a medium that abhors experimentation.
30. Our society needs rituals to officially recognize change-of-life transitions such as moving out from your parents’ house, getting divorced, kids leaving–or returning–home.
31. More cowbell is always needed!
32. The Bible should contain writing by C.S.Lewis, Madeline L’Engle, Henry Rollins, Bruce Springsteen, and Thoreau.
33. Don’t trust anyone who claims to not have secrets; they lie.
34. Everyone should look in the Mirror of Erised once.
35. Telling someone “go to hell” is sometimes appropriate.
36. When this year’s students graduate, everyone who had Drew Chiles as a teacher will be gone from my school. Within that fact is a poem about how fleeting a teacher’s tenure is.
37. We need more dancing and less talking.
38. Christmas trees should have both twinkling and non-twinkling multi-color lights. And lots of them.
39. One of my first memories is JFK’s death; then MLK’s and Bobby’s, Vietnam protests, Kent State, and Watergate. I started with the loss of innocence; my cynicism is inevitable.
40. Everyone has a true age, the point where they are most themselves. That’s the age of their soul.
41. If I had three wishes, one would possibly involve a Yellow Submarine.
42. Children shouldn’t be discouraged from using the word “no.” It’s a word many adults do not use often enough.
43. Most people’s dreams are wishes, not action plans.
44. Parents and children would both be better off if parents understood that their goal is to be on the sidelines watching their kids walk the path, not using a machete to clear the way.
45. If you don’t know whether you’re Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Lion, or the Scarecrow, there’s a good chance you’re the Wicked Witch.
46. Doing yoga in the grass, under the trees on a warm summer day is better communion than grape juice and bread.
47. Not emoting all over the place is not the same as not having deep feelings.
48. People reveal more than they realize in simple conversations. Saying “I think I am a good student” is different than “I feel I am a good student,” for example.
49. Joss Whedon, Aaron Sorkin, Jon Stewart, and Michael Moore–this is the list of people I would like to work for.
50. Yes, I’m bothered that I didn’t list any women. If Ellen Goodman or Molly Ivins were still writing, they would be on the list.
51. Molly Weasley’s battle with Bellatrix was the best moment in the last Harry Potter movie.
52. The rubric I use as I unconsciously assess men may include columns marked Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Capt. Kirk, The Doctor, Hawkeye Pierce, Jax Teller, and Phil Donahue. Anyone who doesn’t fit somewhere on there probably isn’t someone I can have an interesting conversation with.
53. Elderly people who live active, independent lives seem to have had a long-term commitment to physical fitness. That observation should lead to action.
54. Ultimately, Love wins.

Note: I wrote this on my May 7, 2013, my birthday. Fifty-four sounds so young now…and I stand by almost all of these thoughts as valid and true.