Don't waste time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

The Thanksgiving meal should not be treated as a grad school exam or an Olympic dive. Whatever you cook will be good enough - unless you make that Twinkie turkey stuffing we're suddenly hearing too much about.

In twenty years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

Opening day. All you have to do is say the words and you feel the shutters thrown wide, the room air out, the light pour in. In baseball, no other day is so pure with possibility. No scores yet, no losses, no blame or disappointment. No hangover, at least until the game's over.

The secret to happiness, at Thanksgiving or any time, is to find pleasure in imperfection.

You can map your life through your favorite movies, and no two people's maps will be the same.