Good Advice...From 1999
Notes on a faded document
This past week I set out to de-clutter my office closet in the name of ‘creativity.’ Being creative in this chapter of life is important to me, and I’ve found that clearing some space helps clear my mind.
In one of the boxes, I discovered a printed document. It was printed from the Netscape browser on my computer with a date of 4/2/99 on the bottom right edge of the paper.
That was high level tech back in 1999!
The document is titled “good advice.” All in lower case. I thought it was important to share this “good advice” with you. On the document, the font is too small and ink too light to scan it….so I used my typing skills to share.
The advice still applies today. Here’s the list:
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.
Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.
Do not read beauty magazines; they will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents; you never know when they’ll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but a precious few you should hold on to.
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.
Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths.
Prices will rise.
Politicians will philander.
You, too, will get old.
And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.
Don’t mess with your hair too much; or by the time you’re 40, it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy; but be patient with those who supply it.
Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.
But…definitely trust me on the sunscreen.
Finding this list felt like a message from my younger self to my current one. It’s a reminder that while the technology changes, the essentials of a well-lived life remain the same. Sometimes, the best fuel for creativity isn’t something new, but a rediscovered truth from the past.
What piece of “old” advice still fuels your creativity today?
Until next time,
Brigitte
P.S. If you find a moment of “me time” this week, I’d love for you to check out a recent Real Things Living podcast episode, Beyond the Scoreboard - How to Bring Back The Fun in Youth Sports, with Harvey Araton (a sports journalist at the New York Times). We discuss why he wrote his latest book, The Goal of The Game, written for middle-grade readers.