What I Learned in the Past Year, Age 46 & 47

by Jefferson Hansen

                                        for Bruce & Roger, thank you

You are never too old to learn.

You can trust nobody.

You need to trust some simply to survive.

There is no bottom line.

You can never know anyone.

You can never know yourself.

Those you know best can always surprise you, for good and ill.

There is no bottom line.

When the bottom falls out, you only go down as far as the next floor.

That floor, too, can fall out.

There is no such thing as earth.

Freedom often appears when you have very little left to lose.

You always have more to lose.

Even after death you can lose dignity, depending on what they do to your corpse.

I am a hippy at heart—give me value over money anyday.

I will wave my freak flag high.

Destruction can be the most loving and creative act.

You might as well respect yourself; if you don't, nobody will.

People are capable of anything, from sublime charity to sublime cruelty.

Anyone is capable of anything, given certain circumstances.

Don’t think you know yourself.

We construct ideas of how we are that have a tenuous hold on facts in context.

We are stupider than we think.

We think we behave according to our beliefs.

We are smarter than we allow ourselves to think.

The person you lie to the most is yourself.

The next moment is a gift, and a curse.

You can depend on nobody.

Sometimes you can depend on yourself.

Everybody needs someone else, even a hermit.

If you want something done, then you need to get busy.

Desperation, properly focused, can be a great motivator.

You may always be surprised by finding what is your calling.

Whining, when done with nuance and theatrical flair, can manipulate people.

Subtle flamboyance and histrionics are often, sadly, convincing.

The only reward for doing good is knowing you did it.

There is no substitute for the word ‘love’. Those who say writers shouldn’t use it are wrong.

Sometimes your head has no top.

A kind smile can mean everything, for a while.

Every kind smile ends.

There are people who would rather you not exist.

You can take nothing for granted.

We can’t live without assumptions.

I wish someone could see me as I see myself.

I can’t see myself.

‘I’ is an evolution.

You need to stop thinking the horizon can be reached.

You are where you are where you are.

Given the right effort and perceptive angle, anything can be beautiful.

But crazy people are sometimes simply crazy, sometimes not.

Trust your instincts, not your desires.

Nothing is exactly effortless.

When an old friend is on the other line, you can finally relax.

The human capacity for forming groups from which to hate can never be underestimated.

People are stupid.

People are too smart for their own good.

Kindness pops up in the stangest places.

There is no such thing as ‘good-bye’.