Matt Gillingham's List: This I Believe Leads

If I have one operating philosophy about life it is this: “Be cool to the pizza delivery dude; it’s good luck.” Four principles guide the pizza dude philosophy.

I believe globalization is forcing our brains to evolve.

I grew up in Lakeland, Louisiana, one of 12 children. We all lived on my parents’ subsistence farm. We grew cotton, sugar cane, corn, hogs, chickens and had a large garden, but it didn’t bring in much cash. So when I was 12, I got a part-time job on a dairy farm down the road, helping to milk cows. We milked 65 cows at 5 in the morning and again at 2 in afternoon, seven days a week.

I believe in the alphabet, because it has the power to change life.

The architectural term “pathways of desire” refers to dirt ruts in the grass that people make when they want a shortcut between prescribed routes. If you have a yard, you probably have at least a few of them. I live on a farm and we have dozens: The path between the doghouse and the porch; the tight corner around the house on the south side; horse trails; the line between one gate and the next.

Looking at my daughter, the clerk behind the counter asks, “What is she?” Since this is not the first time I have heard this question, the stored up, smart-aleck answers swirl through my mind.

I believe a girl should know her mother. I mean really know her. On the highway, does she drive in the right-hand lane or the left? When she was a little girl, what did she hang on her bedroom wall? What really makes her laugh? How does she handle a bad day? Does she like to dance?

What is an individual life worth? Do our lives have equal value? Struggling with these questions led me to my belief.