- The human race as a collective hasn’t figured it all out yet.
- Neither have you. Keep your mind and heart open to change.
- Unconditionally accept and defend all people, regardless of culture, religion, region, or race.
- Challenge existing structures, rules, and habits if they don’t make sense to you.
- Don’t pick a cause; in time, a cause will pick you.
- If an injustice bothers you to the point of complaint, don’t complain; instead, do something.
- Show respect and compassion to all living beings without judgment.
- You can change the world.
Your Dad’s Lesson:
In grade school, I got into lots of fights and caused quite a bit of disruption. I didn’t care what the rules were; I was just doing what I thought was right. I defended the girls on the playground, interrupted boring stretches of class with humor, and came up with a student exchange/barter system for teacher rewards. Then sometime later in life, I ended up looking at the rules more than the possibilities — until one day when I was sitting in the lineup of a spot where I had surfed frequently. One of the surfers in the lineup rudely told a new surfer to move down the beach. Worse yet, the aggressor probably did it because I had let a friend of mine do the same thing to him almost five years earlier. I wanted to say, “We all started somewhere. He has a right to be here,” but I didn’t. Either time. And it honestly still bothers me a little, but it helps remind me to speak my mind and heart in situations that warrant it.
