Some Excellent, Practical Advice to Help Us Find Peace

I almost never share things here that I find being forwarded on Facebook or other similar sites, but I came across this one today and want to share it with everyone here:

1. Make peace with your past, so it won't screw up your present. 

2. What others think of you is none of your business.
 
3. Time heals almost everything, so give it time.
 
4. Don't compare your life to others, and don't judge them. You have no idea what their lives are all about.
 
5. Stop thinking too much; it's okay not to know all the answers. Many of them will come to you when you least expect it.
 
6. No one is in charge of your happiness, except you.
 
7. Smile. You don't own all the problems in the world.

Comparisons Can Be Useful, Even if They Appear Hyperbolic at First Glance

I think lots of people who have a large-scale impact on other people are "remotely similar" to each other - and, in many cases, not so remotely. For example, I might compare someone to Joseph Smith who doesn't appear to be like Joseph, but I would be careful to focus only on the fact that the person has or had a large-scale impact on a large number of people. Joseph fits within that category at a higher level than most people with whom I would compare him, but the comparison can be useful, nonetheless.  

For what it's worth, I have compared Joseph Smith to Jesus, of Nazareth, on more than one occasion - but I also have compared Hitler to Jesus. When I make comparisons, especially comparisons that might cause some people to react emotionally, I always try to be very precise in those comparisons - and I absolutely see some people (like Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King, Jr.) and Joseph Smith as being similar in the fact that influenced many people in a deep and lasting way. There are degrees of similarity in every comparison, and I didn't equate these as being the same - but I definitely see a similarity and don't shy away from making the comparison, even, again, in extreme cases like comparing Jesus to Hitler.  .

I could make lots of comparisons involving people who comment here and other places online.  All of us tend to be much more complicated than other people (and often we) realize - and all of tend to be capable of both good and bad. Thus, all of us tend to be potential choices for comparisons. 

I think we need to be careful of not being so wary of comparisons to "idols" (and I use that term only to mean "people whom we put on an extreme pedestal - either good or bad") that we can't make legitimate and instructive points about common traits.