The Code (From a Friend)

In your speech:
Be clear, brief, and speak in complete sentences. Get to your point quickly. In this world, the only thing more boring than someone who won’t come to the point, is someone who keeps talking after he’s made his point!

In your relations:
Be relentlessly trustworthy and  honest.  Where there is trust, no proof is necessary. Where there is  none, no proof is possible, and “getting it in writing” won’t make much difference!

In your presentation:
Be modest and humble. Boasters and braggarts are a bore and never make themselves welcome!

In your conflicts:
Show respect to all, but grovel before none. Be prepared to do what is true, good, and right, even when it is not understood, nor popular!

In your work:
Be of good service. Live to advance your Art. Seek to do more than merely occupy space. Civilization needs to benefit from your presence!

In yourself:  
Don’t pretend. Confront facts, even ugly ones, squarely and  honestly. Don’t con your friends, and don’t con yourself!  “Dream Worlds” are always anguished and short-lived.

In your struggle:
Confront the fact that you are less than perfect!  Strive to minimize your blemishes. Against your last day, make sure your flaws die before you  do!

In your death:
Be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear, so that when their time comes, they weep and whine, because they are unacquainted with the True Way and have no hope. Sing your Death Song only once, then step across the Great Divide, never looking back- like a hero... going home.