There are roughly 96 gazillion self-help books out there, covering everything from coping with addiction to building muscle mass to achieving success in business to meeting your perfect match. Most of these go into great detail, providing thoroughly thought-out and researched plans for reaching your goals, often within a specific time frame ("Rock Hard Abs in 30 Days").
This is not one of those books.
Some time in 2023, I started posting "Rules For Good Living" on Facebook. These were nothing more than light, casual suggestions -- often harking back to the innocence of childhood -- for dealing with the modern world without going completely insane, or locking yourself in a bunker until all the stupid died down.
Then, one Saturday morning, as my wife and I were walking into our favorite breakfast place, friends of ours were walking out at the same time and told me that they really liked my posts, and could I keep it up? A couple of weeks later, when we were at a local theater to see a play, another friend approached and told us that she loved them. Then, this past February, I received a comment on one of these posts "Hey, you should put these in a book."
So here we are.
While some of these have their roots in Judeo-Christian morality, this is by no means a religious book. It is not a heavy read (you could probably go cover-to-cover in under a minute if you were so inclined). While the book is titled "Rules For Good Living," these actually can be more accurately described as "suggestions," "hints," "friendly advice," or "meddling."
This is a book you can have on your coffee table to leaf through during a commercial break, or while you're waiting for the water to boil for your spaghetti, or when you need a little psychological sunshine when all around you is grey and gloomy and dragging you down.
And if even one person finds that one of these helps them to cope with things a little bit better, I will consider this book to have been a success.
Peace.
