I'll continue to insist that the best life advice was given to me by a scarf clerk at Dillard's department store.

I had somehow not paid my bill, and she was directing me to the credit department.

She told me to exit the escalator upstairs, then to "not go straight, but go forward."

She meant that I should dodge the display at the top of the stairs.

"Don't go straight, go forward," has become a tenet.