Shake up your life: how to change your own perspective

Several years ago I took a trip to South Bend, Indiana to see the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame play football against the Michigan Wolverines. What started as a fairly standard trip turned into anything but, and it taught me quite a few lessons about why it's so darn important to change your perspective.

For starters, upon picking up the RV that'd transport us to South Bend, I discovered the remains of digested food, processed through the human GI system. Initially I was a little disgusted, but then I considered the incredible journey some of that waste had been on. Sure it's a mud pie today, but at one time it was a t-bone steak, or pecan-crusted salmon, or some other incredible culinary delight I've never even heard of. Then it was sliding through a person's intestines, and who knows, maybe those intestines belonged to a Pulitzer Prize winner? Or a person with a treasure trove of collectibles, JUST LIKE ME!

Next, while in South Bend, I observed a gentleman bobbing and weaving like Muhammed Ali as bumbling campus policemen tried to damper his inimitable spirit. At first I thought he was some sort of meth head on a crazy vision quest, but then I realized he was art incarnate. Touchdown Jesus surely was smiling down at him, judging by the way he performed his Mr. Roboto dance moves and slipped into a peaceful slumber immune to the chaos around him.

There were many more, but I just got a huge order of Beanie Babies that I need to refurbish so I'm off to try seeing the world not as Tom, but as a first edition Patti the Platypus!