Before I get into the entry, I just have to say that, man, I've never had three years go by so quickly in my life. Three years of journaling - wow! And it feels like just yesterday that I was learning my first basic HTML tags. Thanks for the ride, and I hope you'll stay on board with me for another three years!

Yesterday, my husband declared that there actually are absolute truths. In this matter, I'm in agreement with him. The converse is argued too often today in order to be "tolerant." Honestly, though, I feel it's a shame to toss out good and solid truths for any reason at all.

We are told to "think outside the box." (Well, I hear that's what we're told; I can't recall ever being told such a thing myself.) "The box" is a bad thing, you see; it's confining and constraining. We need to liberate our minds, and we're apparently supposed to do so by regarding as suspect anything on which we might have relied in previous days.

Why? The beliefs on which I rely, I still believe. I trust them. There aren't many, but I know them, and they make me who I am.

Here's some of what's in "my box":

• One can respect without agreeing.
• Being courteous, regardless of how you are treated in return, is always the right thing to do.
• Hindsight may be 20-20, but there's no point to dwelling on past mistakes.
• The glass is half full, regardless of what he says.
• Stretching the rules beyond all recognition can be one heck of a lot more fun than simply breaking them.
• John 14:6.
• Art does not necessarily equal beauty.
• The converse, likewise, is also true.
• Children are human beings, not pets, and should be allowed their dignity.
• Anything can be forgiven eventually.
• Knowledge for knowledge's sake is a beautiful thing. (Though not necessarily art.)
• Revenge hurts the person taking it as much as it does the target.
• A lie is a lie is a lie. There's no grey area in this.
• A forced apology is no apology; modeling respect for others is better than demanding it.
• Love doesn't keep score.
• "Different" doesn't mean "inferior."
• When all is said and done, absolute truths are few and far between.

Without my box, and its contents, I'd be an entirely different person. I don't think I'd like myself very much. I've filled my box with this truths over a lifetime of experiences, and they've never steered me wrong.

I don't think I'll be thinking outside of this box, thank you very much.