To Avoid Suffering, Please Avoid the Following:

All Beings simply want to be happy and to avoid suffering.
Originally uploaded by Eastern Washington University

I'm not sure what I want out of this life but I do know what I don't want: I don't want to suffer.

Suffering is everywhere, particularly in the news, so I've decided it might be in my best interest to start compiling a list of situations to avoid.

1. Do not send Little La Pointe to college in order to avoid a phone call saying he or she has been knifed. That would cause a lot of suffering for the kid and for me.

2. Do not get cancer. My friend Dave at sentenceofdave.blogspot.com has been simultaneously reading and watching a tv show about cancer and he told me that, to make a long story short, getting cancer really, really sucks.

3. Do not run a marathon. Three people died while running the Detroit marathon today. The Detroit marathon, not the Dubai marathon. I'm mean yeah, everyone knows the conditions in Detroit aren't the best but I'm sure they didn't kill the runners. Running killed the runners. Yet another reason to walk for fitness...

4. Do not go to Mexico. Mexico has become home to the Olympics of Suffering: if it's not the weather that's going to kill you then the drug cartels will.

5. Do not trust anyone Oprah trusts. Um, self help "guru" James Arthur Ray? Mike Freakin' Tyson? Seriously.

That's it for now; don't worry, there are many more...

So, What's La Pointe of It All? I think the brick says it all.