flip flops

All pet peeves are weird, aren't they?



Eating noises irritate me – especially potato chips. I don't know if that's weird, though.



I definitely hate the way people push to be first in a line that's going nowhere, like being the first to board an airplane with assigned seating, or pushing toward the door on a bus when everyone in front of you is getting off at that stop anyway. I'm not sure how weird that is, either, but it's really annoying!



People who punch everything. They're irritating. Like when you're in a public restroom, and the guy next to you slams the flush handle instead of just pressing it, or punches the button on the hand dryer. Dude, you don't have to kill it!



Okay, how about flip-flops? That's probably weird. I hate flip-flops. In fact, I actually have diminished respect for people wearing them. If you want me to have a serious conversation with you, you can't be wearing flip-flops at the time. I will not take you seriously. You'll be talking, but the whole time, I'll be thinking about how disgusting your feet are!

If I had to choose one quote that I live by, it would be this: "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." That's actually just the ending of a bigger quote from Helen Keller.



The whole thing goes like this: "Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."



But it's hard to choose just one favorite, because there are several quotes I love. However, I suppose there is a clear theme to those that are important in my life.



For example, Eleanor Roosevelt is credited with saying: "Do at least one thing every day that scares you." And of course her husband famously said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." One has to imagine that they shared an adventuresome and fulfilling marriage!



Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Always do what you are afraid to do." That was good, but in another place he said it even better: "He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.”



The secret of life he's referring to is lurking there in all of these quotes, but is revealed to the world in this quote from Marilyn Ferguson: “Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is freedom.”



In the end, those are your options in life: fear or freedom. Every time you experience fear, you are faced with that choice. You can only experience freedom when you conquer fear. Which is why, as Helen Keller said, "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."

10 years from now, I hope to be living in another country… or in several countries, as a permanent traveler. I want to earn all of the money for my cost-of-living from my web sites and online work, only taking jobs for extra money, and never because I need them.



By this time, I expect to speak 10 languages fluently, in addition to several languages at various levels of non-fluency. I expect to be a published author and photographer, and someone who is well acquainted with the world. I expect to be married and raising one or two children, and that the wife and kids will also be multilingual, and world-aware.



That's quite a lot, but the main thing is that these are not very materialistic goals. I have no idea idea or expectation of being rich or poor, or of having expensive cars or anything else. I'm happy to grow most of my own food, if that's how life turns out, but I'm also happy to eat in restaurants every day. I'm content with owning inexpensive properties in poor countries, but I wouldn't mind having luxurious properties in rich countries, too.



In the end, it's not "things" that make me happy… it's experiences, relationships, and accomplishments.