I have come to Los Angeles to see my name in letters five-feet tall and luminous

Now, I'll be honest. I had to do a web search to figure that one out. I really thought it would be Adam Ant or somebody, except that Ellen doesn't strike me as ever having been a New Romantic, or whatever they were called.

However, I'd like to give a special shout-out to the nice folks at google.com, the search engine that rocks the house, because you can type in "you seemed to share my secret sin" and find a web page that has nothing but Survivor lyrics. As soon as I saw Survivor, I remembered the song. Can I take half credit? Judges?

The web never ceases to amaze me.

This brings me to an important point: the coolest thing about growing up, bar none, is realizing that you don't know everything. You're not even supposed to know everything. I'm not sure how I learned that lesson, but I do know how valuable it has been. Thing is, when you think you know everything, you lose your ability to learn. To a certain extent I think you lose your ability to listen.

Most people should spend more time listening, don't you think? Listen to the crickets at night, to the traffic on the street, to the rain on the roof. Listen to your blood pumping, to water boiling, to the wind blowing.

Try to tune yourself into the world. It knows things.

Since I learned to listen, my heart breaks about a hundred times a day. By breaks, I mean "opens." Because I do not know everything, this can only make me stronger.

before - after