Rules of Life

I’ve long been intrigued by Rules of Life.   They range from Never eat at a place called Mom's  and  Never play cards with a man named Doc  to  There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch which is so famous it has its own acronym TANSTAAFL (pronounced tan-staff-el).

How can you resist this.  You need only two tools: WD-40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD-40. If it moves and shouldn't, use the tape.  Rules you can use while laws are general observations, true and often clever, like Murphy’s Law If anything can go wrong, it will.

Some rules make me laugh out loud like these from the Guys Rules for Women where every rule is number one on purpose:

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work! 
Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!
1. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us.
1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard's Almanac wrote perhaps the most famous American rules of life,  Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise and There are no gains without pains.  And he continued crafting them in his letters, Time is money.

Some come from others.  Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it’s hard to get it back in comes from Bob Halderman, Richard Nixon’s chief of staff.    Mick Jagger’s responsible for You can’t always get what you want.   

Satchiel Paige’s rules are classic , Don’t look back.  Something might be gaining on you.  Babe Paley is credited with You can never be too thin or too rich.   Colen Powell goes by Get mad, then get over it.

Who hasn't delighted in Yogi Berra's rules,  You can observe a lot by watching and You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there.

Some I use come from childhood, The person who cuts the cake gets last pick, Stop, Look and Listen and the rule of Thumper If you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all.   Later I learned Don’t sweat the small stuff and When in doubt, pick the chocolate.   Experience taught me that  Almost anything is easier to get into than out of and Life isn’t fair.  

Some rules are simple but key:  Never miss a chance to go the bathroom,  Never interrupt while being flattered,  and Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.

Some are more profound.  One of my favorites is from the Swiss Henri Frederick Amiel, Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.

The most famous rules of life of course are Refuge in the Three Jewels, The Four Noble Truths,  the Eightfold Path and the Eight Beatitudes and, of course, the Ten Commandments.

But the pre-eminent rule of life is golden and you all know it.   Endorsed by every great religion, the Golden Rule is the closest we have to a certain moral truth.  Buddhists learn Hurt not others with that which pains yourself.    The notion of karma includes You reap what you sow.   The Talmud says What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow men.  That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.  

Jesus made it positive, Do unto others if you would have them do unto you.

So let’s agree that the Golden Rule is #1.   What other rules of life do you follow?  What rules do you want to share?