• Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
• Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
• Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
• When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
• Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
• Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
• Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
• Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
• Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
• Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, essayist, social critic, political activist, and Nobel laureate. Read more about Bertrand Russell.

I have a great story for you. I am making my way up the west coast for some shows and for a Mega McGee Family reunion. I’ll be performing in Redding, California, Portland/Eugene, Oregon, and Vancouver, B.C. If you know folks in those wondrous places, please let them know I am coming.

After my shows, I will head toward Seattle to meet up with the McGee side of the family. My grandfather is ill, so my father is flying in from Germany as well as my brother Jamie and his wife and kids here in the Bay. My father hasn’t seen his dad since 1988, nor has he seen Jamie since 1990. My uncles, aunts and cousins are all coming together and my grandma will be there. My dad hasn’t been in the same room as both of his parents since the 1970s. It’ll be the first time I’ve been in the same room as my father and brother since 1989, and the first time ever that the three of us will be in the same room with my grandpa. And it turns out we’ll all be together on Father’s Day. That detail was unplanned… I am so excited and I don’t know what more to say about it…