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My rules for life, and that I’ve taught my kids are:

1) Life isn’t fair.
2) Nothing is easy.
3) It’s always something.
4) God is Sovereign.

I was working on the car the other day and having a heck of a time trying to reach my hand underneath blindly while trying to find the hole with the bolt and then tighten it blindly with my other hand. (I bet I spent a half-hour struggling with it.)

“Doggone on it! What does EVERTHING have to be so difficult!!??....I know why!! NOTHING is easy!! But WHY can’t it be easy!!??? I don’t know - but nothing is!!”

I took a break and kept ranting - but in a made-up maniacal way to just get the frustration out of my system. I related it to my daughter.

She laughed. And replied - “Or Dad, it might be that John Wayne quote you like - ‘Life is tough. It’s even tougher when you’re stupid.”

I had to agree with her on that!

I did finally get that bolt in!

Seriously though - usually I don’t get that frustrated when working on things - if you plan on “nothing is easy” and “it’s always something” - it is good knowledge to have ahead of time.

The “God is Sovereign” was added to my original list of three a few years ago. Doesn’t really apply to car repairs though!

One of my cornerstone rules for happiness is this, “Never fall in love with your stuff”.

For the longest time, I have acted like all my material possessions are rented and can be repossessed at any time. I try to get the maximum enjoyment from my material possessions as I go along and not cry over spilled milk when they are gone.

People will go to pieces when there is a house fire and they lose their custom designed home, all their wedding photos and heirlooms, antiques and prize possessions. Or your signed Babe Ruth ball gets stolen. Or your kid snuck out and played with your Stradivarius you just backed over in the SUV. It is all just “stuff” folks.

This really helps to keep me balanced when a favorite car gets totaled, or a favorite coat gets left in a hotel, or a cherished artifact gets smashed and broken.

Once you accept that only family, friends, and your health have any real meaning, and that all your “stuff” is borrowed and can disappear at any time for any reason, it really helps keep you balanced when disaster strikes.

I love the scene in Schindlers’s List when the wealthy Jewish couple is forced to leave home for the ghetto and they gather up their jewelry, silver and furs and as an audience we almost want to scream at them that crap is unimportant because they are clueless to the terror and death that awaits them in the concentration camps.

It is just “stuff” folks. There isn’t a single item of “stuff” you own that you can’t live with. A lost wedding ring does not dissolve a marriage. A stolen heirloom does not obliterate your family tree. Even losing a smart phone that is perfectly set up, while a royal pain to start from scratch — it is replaceable, it is expendable, and it is just “stuff”.

NEVER fall in love with your STUFF. Never. Enjoy it temporarily for as long as you happen to have it, but when it burns up or breaks or gets stolen or lost, it is just stuff folks. Being prepared to lose it at any time makes that loss painless.