I can see where you are coming from but...

...I find the lecture a bit...odd. I am probably missing the point completely.

"I had wonderful parents, I got to chase my dreams, I lived a happy life and now that I am dying my advice to you is to have fun."

I can see someone who knows he is dying and found a way to cope with it, fixated on an idea to the exclusion of everything else. I find it unbalanced and dangerous to be honest. From his family photos it seems they have an adventurous streak in their genes but that does not make it good advice for everyone. And where do you draw the line? When is fun too much?

His advice on apologies is extremely good though, most people really do not know how to apologize. They don't even get as far as the 2nd step. They say "sorry" and then start making excuses to shift blame away from them. Most people have real trouble admitting they were wrong.

Gratitude is a bit trickier, it is easy to talk about it but expressing gratitude in practice can be very tricky especially if it is important to show sincerity.

So yeah, I find him fixated on everything good and all the bad just seems to be ignored. The bad is part of life and being fixated on the good can be just as unhealthy as being fixated on the bad. I am more of a believer in balance. I get offended, I get irritated, I get annoyed especially since I have a hint of perfectionism. I like for things to be done right. It gets on my nerves when people takes shortcuts especially when I have to fix their "shortcuts" afterwards. I don't think getting angry is necessarily a bad thing, it can be extremely valuable as a teaching tool.

I also find the whole "pour cola on the backseat" thing a bit hard to swallow. Was he laughing because he knew he was up front driving and they were going to have to sit in the wet spot? It sounds like he doesn't know any kids that stab holes in everything with pens. Yes, it is just things, but how is teaching kids to take care of things bad? He saved the kid from feeling "guilty"? If I threw up in someone's car the last thing I would feel is guilty, embaressed definitely, but not guilty. Its not as if I could stop it. I find the reasoning a bit odd.