Guard against your world becoming a junkyard of spavined vehicles.

The only cure is an influx of new ideas. The problem with new ideas is that they can, and should probably, involve a spectrum of confrontation from mild surprise to the draconian and euphemistic "exchange" of nuclear weapons.

That spectrum is governed by education, experience, individual security, ideologies (all of which are subject to becoming spavin-bound after the initial blush), and upbringing, of course. And, there we are, back again at the essential family. Remember how mad you got at your siblings as they grew and changed, as you grew and changed? How you had to adjust to your parents' increasing ages? How each and every year brought new challenges in school and with your ever-changing circle of friends and loved ones? Have you noticed how all of that has slowed down as you have gotten older and how change is becoming more and more a threat to your comfort and ease? Confrontation is becoming something to avoid rather than anticipate and prepare for? That's spavination setting in.

If you knew the chemistry of rust, you would recognize an explicitly demonstative metaphor when you see one.

We must use our "vehicles" or guess what? They become spavined. Our lives, our careers, too, will become a junkyard full of spavined habits and choices: a pile of rusting dreams that we are hiding behind, peeking out from.

Learn to rush to embrace new ideas and try them out. Join in the debate, intelligently, or even better, listen with an open mind, open heart. And most importantly, avoid closed minds, especially your own, watch for the creeping insidiousness: cynicism, criticism, rejection, sarcasism, pettiness, prejudice, abusing humor, and, most of all, elitism and exclusivity.

We all have something to expiate: doubt and lack of faith. But it's easy, thank God. Do something, today, for others. Stop at a crosswalk, wait patiently. Smile, genuinely. Listen to another's story. And, every chance you get, go ahead and say a kind word. Before you know it, you're going to have a very, very nice day. The less you talk about yourself, the better. And if today is spent helping others, listening to others, and above all being kind to others (be kind to strangers most of all) then your spavined vehicle will quickly start to run more smoothly and before you know it, you'll be out on the highway, cruising along, hair blowing in the winds of change and progress, with people saying, "Quite a guy. "Quite a gal."

"What do we live for, it if is not to make life less difficult for each other?"
-- George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)