By David Himmel

• Ed Sheeran makes club music for moms and preschoolers.

• I’m still in awe — a little surprised — that the guests at my wedding showed up just for us. That they even cared at all. I feel the same way about my Bar Mitzvah. What an odd honor it is to be cared about, to be loved. 

• I’ve been in a country where I didn’t speak the language. It caused a handful of small frustrations and one huge misunderstanding that resulted in me being angrily chased out of a restaurant by the staff. Those experiences pale in comparison to the frustration my son, wife, and I feel when he is trying to tell us something through his toddler babble and we have no goddamnmotherfucking idea what he’s saying. My God, it’s heartbreaking for all of us and we all weep.

• It’s your dry cleaner that determines how great your neighborhood is.

• For me, enough rest is often too much.

• A friend told me once, “Never write anything down. If you do, there’s proof it happened and they can hold you accountable.” Twenty years later, I’m glad I scoffed at that advice. The things we write down, in most instances don’t become evidence in a case of accountability, they become the records of our personal history. Interestingly enough, that friend never responded to my last email asking how he’d been. At least he follows his own advice.