The Tao of How

There's an inherent danger to building things up. We do it all the time. We get excited for things to come, and by the time we experience them there is all likelihood that they won't live up to our expectations. Vacations are a great example. I'm going on vacation at the end of the week, and I'll be out through next week. I'm very excited to be able to log off for a while, but I also worry that I'm expecting too much of the time I'll be off. The nice thing about camping is that I know what to expect. I am going to try to avoid bringing work distractions with me and I'm going to be sure to prepare as best I can ahead of time so that everyone at work knows I will be unavailable. I'm taking steps to specifically avoid putting myself in a situation where I'll be worried about work. Of course, I can only do so much. That's where the buildup might put me at risk of enjoying my time off. I'm designing my vacation around specific check...

This is a tough one. My son got a gift certificate for $15 at the local comic book store. I love walking around that store. Every shelf is eye candy, and I find myself just mesmerized. I want one of everything. I've gotten a lot better about collecting over the years, but I still find the pull of comics to be nearly irresistible when I'm around them. Jack had a lot of questions about how comics work. He didn't understand that regular issues are a serial format, and that there can be all kinds of variations to these individual issues. Sure, there are some one-shot issues, but the larger story and story arc structures can be hard to wrap your head around if you're not familiar with them. Then there are the crossovers, the alternate universes, origins... all kinds of stuff. And these things are all like crack cocaine to comic book collectors. So while I didn't want to encourage Jack to necessarily start collecting, there's no way you can walk into a co...