The Last Blog Post #LastBlog

Guy Kawasaki and Martin Lieberman, among others, have started a thing. This is called "Last Blog", and you are supposed to write your "Last Blog Post", a la Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture"- a final blog post detailing how you want to be thought of/remembered. (By the by- if you haven't read, or at least listened to or watched, the Last Lecture, you need to. Like, now.) Maybe this isn't the best time to be posting on this topic, coming right after the previous one, but here goes:

The Last Blog Post

So, this is it, then. Running down the curtain. Bereft of life, may he rest in peace. Joined the Choir Invisible.

What have we learned? Or, what have I learned?

In order to not be verbose, let me boil it down to ten things. If you remember nothing else of me, remember these ten things:

1. Walks are important. Hits are nice. Hits get glory, and fame, and recognition, and praise. But walks are important. They keep the train running, and they keep the inning going, and they aren't outs. Sometimes, a walk is the best you can do- so just take it. Take what the defense gives you. Don't force it. You'll pop up.

2. Hold a baby whenever you get the chance. WHENEVER. Babies are excellent listeners, and they remind you how fucking fragile everything is. When you're holding a baby, you're not doing anything else.

3. Sit down. You may be walking or standing for a while. Always sit down when you can.

4. Taxes are the price you pay for living in a world with streets and police and fire departments and water and electricity. Shut up and pay them.

5. All politicians are liars. All of them. They take money from corporations and moneyed interests and do the bidding of those interests. Don't believe what any of them say. As my father used to say, "If Richard Nixon told me it was raining, I'd walk across the room and look out the window."

6. That being said, it's still a pretty good deal to be an American.

7. Call your parents. They have sacrificed more than you can possibly imagine until you have kids of your own. Call them.

8. It is almost always better to be honest.

9. A surprising amount of things are better in the abstract than the concrete. Like the outdoors, for example.

10. Keep the ball down and throw strikes.