The refrain in U2's anthemic "Bad" goes, "Let it go/And so fade away." Bono's singing about drug addiction, but I think the idea holds true for a lot of things. Let something go and it will stop afflicting you.

A good friend of mine, Guy Wilcox, used to tell me to "sell my summer home in Babylon." He was my boss the five years I did landscaping at Lagoon Amusement Park and the two of us, as we planted flowers, trees, laid sod or just drove around the park, would often talk about the things all of us had to do to improve ourselves.

As I'm faced with that challenge like never before, his voice still rings in my ears and I can hear him tell me to "sell my summer home in Babylon," to give up those little sinful indulgences to which I cling, which in turn stops me from progressing. It's no new notion. We all have them. And because we enjoy them, they really are hard to give up. Especially because we do other good things and thus can rationalize holding onto the bad. But the time has come to let it go and let it fade away.

I need to talk more about Guy. He died last month of a rare stomach cancer and writing about him makes me think about him and that's good.