If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there. Even if you have a destination in mind, you need the right place to begin because some journeys can't begin from just anywhere. A man was traveling through upstate New York, for example, when he realized he was lost. So he stopped next to a farmer plowing his field and waved him over. I'm trying to get to Syracuse but I got lost." The farmer shook his head. "Sorry son, but you can't get there from here."

Let these articles be the here that gets you there—a beginning that puts you on a path to discovering Things That Matter. Each article plays a role in the significance of the others, and those interactions create something beyond a mere sum of its parts. That something is what you will acquire by reading, understanding and applying all these articles. Let them take you beyond just surviving to thriving personally and professionally, and then to a wise, enlightened sense of self.

The essays span topics from A to Z, but I didn't include things like aspirin or ambien, cake or cookies, hot showers or cold beer, and sunscreen or umbrellas. Nor did I mention duct tape or WD-40 because duct tape only matters if something moves but shouldn't, and WD-40 only matters if something doesn't move but should. And who doesn't know that we need strong coffee to wake up and a weak novel to fall sleep. Toilet paper? Well, you don't need an essay to tell you how much that matters. I did, however, include a few poems and stories that would have won a Pulitzer Prize if those folks at Columbia University had recognized world-class writing!