You revolve around the sun, and not the other way around.
Stoves are often hot. Knives are often sharp.
Animals have teeth and claws, even the ones we keep as pets.
Cars are not toys, unless they are toys.
Spouses are to be loved and cherished, as are children, though differently.
Children have to be raised. Spouses need to be uplifted.
Respect and deference are not the same.
Deference and submission are not the same.
Submission and worship are not the same.
Loyalty matters. Fidelity matters. Joy and suffering matter.
Money doesn’t matter, unless you don’t have any.
Happiness doesn’t matter as much as you think, unless you don’t have any.
If you prick them, they bleed. (Don’t prick them.)
Peace is a decision, not a consequence.
Cheaters occasionally prosper, but they eventually feel bad.
Laughter is not medicine, but it is good for you.
We want the same things, unless what you want is sinister or twisted, in which
case we do not want the same things.
Hope doesn’t actually float.
People lie. People also tell the truth.
Age doesn’t always beget wisdom.
Feelings are not facts, but they feel like it.
God is, and great. (Your assent is not a requirement.)
Waste mocks want. Haste makes it.
Rebirth is symbolic, not literal, and needn’t be avoided on those grounds.
Babies cry. A lot. It’s not their fault.
Teenagers are worth it. Dogs are not.
Shakespeare. And Robert Frost. And sometimes Dylan Thomas.
Fruits and vegetables.
You are more than you bargained for. (Take advantage.)
Friendship. (Don’t take advantage.)
Love given is love received. Love received is love given.
Give and receive gracefully.
Knock and someone will open. Unless they don’t. Knock anyway. Politely.
The race often goes to the swift, unless it’s an endurance race.
Beauty isn’t just skin deep.
Neither are you.
Author Bio
Jonathon Penny is a husband, father, professor of letters, and poet. He is a wanderer among nations, a wearer of beards, a bearer of many burdens, a master of none. He is, occasionally, poetry editor at Wilderness Interface Zone, and he is trying to make his way home.
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