Vox Populi
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Michael Simms: Ten things I should have figured out before now
1. There are no monuments to poetry editors.
2. Even if you’re not sure about the whole idea of God, it’s still a pretty good idea to pray every now and then.
3. Your children will have to make their own mistakes. They’re not going to learn from yours.
4. Love is complicated. Courtesy is simple. Start with courtesy.
5. A kind remark moves a relationship forward one step. A mean remark moves a relationship back ten steps.
6. Resentments are poisonous.
7. Clean up your side of the street. The other side of the street is somebody else’s responsibility.
8. Giving advice about something that is none of your business is rarely appreciated.
9. Eat a salad every day.
10. Only ten percent of what you write is worth reading. The trick is knowing which ten percent it is.
Copyright 2020 Michael Simms
Michael Simms is the editor and founder of Vox Populi.
Vox Populi 
Thanks Michael, for your wit and wisdom….and keeping a good thing going!
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Thanks, Kathleen!
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Michael – These ten things definitely fall into your 10% category! List plus such a joyful picture are a perfect gift anytime but especially now. Very thankful you are healthy/through your earlier patch. Blessings!
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Thanks, Jackie!
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Amen!
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I think I need to print this and post it where I will see it before I start my day.
But then, maybe it is more to be read at the end of the day as a kind of pat on the head and a “there, there, that’s okay.”
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Sent you a pm about the second one
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Thanks, Barbara!
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I, too, LOVE that photo of you 3! And agree with you. Mostly. It’s that 10% I really think is 5… Speaking of what I write — not you, not MOST of my fellow poets…
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Hahahaha. Actually I was exaggerating. I wrote thousands of poems in my twenties. Perhaps ten of them are worth re-publishing.
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7. Clean up your side of the street. The other side of the street is somebody else’s responsibility.
Nice observations in general but I disagree with the above. One of the problems in our world is that too many of us, encouraged by our political and economic systems, see our responsibility to others in the world as ending on “our side of the street” when, in fact, the “street ” (or our world) is or should be a collective responsibility. Yes, we should clean up “our side of the street” but we bear an obligation to encourage others to see “our side” as truly “OUR side” and to encourage collective efforts to “clean” it. Then, we try to figure out why our neighbors do not see “their side” as something they should care about. Once we figure that out and move them into seeing that collective caring and responsibility moves us all forward, we can take on both sides of “our street” and renew our confidence and ability to make a better world for all.
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Thanks, Mel!
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How I loved this and the photo. How I rejoiced and gave thanks that you are better.
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Thanks, Maddie!
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