Table of Contents
Introduction 1
1 Why I Write You Letters 5
2 Get a Life Philosophy 13
Interlude Meet the Stoics 23
3 Say No to the Pigdog 33
4 Low-Level Happiness 43
5 That's Amore 57
6 Invictus 75
Interlude William Ernest Henley 87
7 Donkeys and Weasels 91
8 Uncle Golden Toe 109
9 Small Carrots 117
10 Homo Stupidus to Homo Sapiens 131
Interlude The Four Cardinal Virtues 143
11 Read Yourself a New Brain 147
12 Parenting: To Bring Forth 163
13 The IMP of the Perverse 177
14 My Name Is Karen and I Do Not Want to Speak to Your Manager 189
15 Decline of the Sacred 199
16 The Strangest of Places 211
17 Memento Mori 227
Interlude Things to Do When You're Dead 237
18 The Fourth Trimester 249
19 A Letter from Jack 253
Appendix: The Appendix 257
Additional Resources: The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scales 261
Further Reading 267
Acknowledgments 271