12] Be nice to animals. Kill your meat humanely. (Or better yet, become a vegan. Just don't talk about it all the time!) Don't overwork your draft animals. Treat your pets with kindness. Repay their sacrifice and hard work and love for you with all that they need to live long and contented lives.
13] Keep yourself clean. Brush your teeth daily and take regular showers. There is no reason to offend those with whom you live and work with the noxious odors emanating from your body. There's plenty of hot water, use it.
14] Raise your children to be decent human beings. You are responsible for the type of adult your child will become. Parenting is a serious business; treat it as such. Your children belong to themselves and to the world also.
15] Judge others with caution and care or don't judge them at all. Try to understand others' motivations. Listen and learn. Never respond to another person's problem until you've heard the entire back story associated with said problem.
16] Give a hoot, don't pollute. I got this one from Woodsy Owl, but it's a goody. The world in which you live is shared with others; don't ask them to live at the city dump.
17] Clean up after yourself. No one -- aside from the parents of young children and those who are being paid to do so -- should be expected to pick up after another.
18] Spend your time learning the arts of life and not the arts of death. Create, don't destroy. Build up, don't tear down. Cure, don't infect. Give life, don't dole out death.
19] Stay out of each others' faces. Respect peoples' personal space, both physically and emotionally. No one wants their entire field of vision filled with someone else's ego. You have your own space, leave others' theirs.
20] Self-abuse should be avoided. Avoidable pain is a bad thing. Hurting yourself needlessly does not make you holy. Put the hair shirt away, it doesn't impress me.
NOTE FROM GOD:
I've never handed out any commandments, but if I did these are the sorts of things I would probably emphasize. Please note that I've tried to phrase everything in positive terms. There is far too much negativity in the world already. All those don't-do-this's and don't-do-that's really gets on my nerves. Please bear in mind that I am still not terribly concerned with what goes on here on Earth and that the items listed above are not commandments as such, but merely friendly advice offered to you by an omniscient but still largely disinterested creator God. I was going to have one cajoling you to "read a good book once in a while" and one suggesting that you "get yourself a hobby" but I only had space for ten items. The best advice is that which is kept short and to the point. Use a little common sense and most of you will be fine.
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