“Don't rehearse your problems, Dad always said. Meaning, we were only supposed to go through our problems when they were actually upon us.”

“You were supposed to empathize with your friend's problem, but they were, after all, your friend's problems...”

“It is in the whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has meaning. Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure. Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and our wisdom. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn.”

“Your dad used to say that our problems disappear when we laugh and I think he was right. They do, even if only for those few minutes while we are laughing.”

“I came running down the stairs that morning, like it was Christmas. My parents were already up. In my family, presents never waited; they were there upon waking. Our family has a problem with what they called delayed gratification. We want what we want when we want it, and we always want it now.”

“And that is how the problems were always fixed. Fix them on the surface but don't go to the root, always ignoring the elephant in the room. I think that morning was when I realized I'd grown up with an elephant in every room. It was practically our family pet.”