Learn to Teach, Teach to Learn

  IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER - by Erma Bombeck (written after she found out she was dying from cancer). I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day. I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage. I would have talked less and listened more. I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, or the sofa faded. I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace. I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth. I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband. I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed. I would have sat on the lawn with my grass stains. I would have cried and lau...

I first heard about Francis Ford Coppola's Principles of Spontaneous Recklessness at a memorial service this week. 1. Care more about your vision than your reputation. 2. Challenge the powers that be. 3. Never let your children hear you say "I wish I had lived my life differently." 4. Be an adventurer--always try something new. Be one big yes. 5. Don't be afraid to take gargantuan risks. It's the only game worth playing, and it's not a gamble unless you go all the way. 6. The unlived life is not worth living. 7. Be interested in everything; experience life to the fullest. 8. Get into situations in which failure isn't an option. If the stakes are high enough, you have to succeed. 9. Your work is your life--give in to it. If you are a serious artist, your work will always be about you. 10. Passions are wired into the real world more directly than our workaday routines are. If you love something, you'll bring so much of yourself ...