Mr. Gobley sez:

• Leave things -- each day, in each realm of your life, and in your life as a whole -- so that they will run even better, grow even stronger, when you're gone. (This may be as close as we get to immortality.)
• Think of your life as the world's supply of oil: who knows how much there may be? Best to assume it's already peaked, and get much more careful about its expenditure.
• That first smell of dried leaves, crushed to powder underfoot, is invigorating.
• It's profoundly gratifying to be befriended by a neighbor's dog.
• Photos are overrated. Think of all the time you could have spent enjoying the moment. Now, instead, you have a memento of a moment you never really experienced.
• An office without walls, windows or a door is a cruel, cruel thing.
• Prescription for those who need a dose of humility: sit them at a potter's wheel and tell them to throw a pot.
• Prescription for afternoon lassitude: chocolate.
• Suddenly, those questions about what you would take with you in a (fill in the blank: flood, fire, terrorist attack, apocalypse) dire emergency aren't so academic.
• Why, when you're walking behind someone who doesn't know you're there, and you try to pass them, do they so often suddenly veer into your path?
• Best thing you can do for someone you love: don't let them drive if impaired by alcohol, drugs or old age.
• i don't read the tabloids, but i must confess: it's somehow comforting that people of immeasurable beauty and wealth can still descend into low comedy (or ascend to high melodrama) in their personal lives.
• i have a recurring image of being held in captivity in a crawl space beneath a building, and not being allowed to stand for a period of months, even years. What would i do? Would my spine crumble?
• i watch the digital clocks in my home, my office, my car, blink away each second, and i think back at them: "Oh, shutup."

--Mr. Gobley