When I was a child I would send away for fabulous free things advertised in the back of comic books. The ads simply required the sender to include a self-addressed stamped envelope. I thought to myself, “Well, I addressed this envelope myself without anyone else’s help and I put a stamp on it, so it should be fine.” I never got anything back in the mail.

I was also certain that the phrase “in the long run” referred to an end of the world event, similar to the rapture. I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the other runners and wondered what might happen if I needed to stop for a minute to have a drink.