NO MATTER WHAT KIND of life you lead, there is inevitably a guidebook to help you lead it. Right now, as we speak, on Amazon.com, one can find a Guide to Living and Working in a Multicultural World, or a Guide to Living in Sin Without Getting Burned, or a Fat Girl’s Guide to Life. There are numerous guides to “simple living” and “better living” and even a Canine Guide to Living With Humans Without Going Mad, if your dog, unlike mine, happens to be a big reader.

Most of these, of course, are applesauce. Who needs some jackleg generalist fuzzing over the idiosyncrasies of each of our lives, telling us Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, and It’s All Small Stuff, until they come out with their tie-in follow-up, What About the Big Stuff? which, as luck would have it, we’re not supposed to sweat either. As an American and an individualist, I’ll sweat where I please.