Sarah Adams

Audio and Text

Sarah Adams grew up in Wisconsin. She is a professor of English at Olympic Community College in Seattle, Washington. Adam’s essay, “Be Cool to the Pizza Dude,” was one of the first listener-submitted pieces read on National Public Radio for the This I Believe series. In this piece, Adams discusses her personal philosophy of life through the lens of pizza delivery. After reading the essay, answer the critical reading questions that follow.

AS YOU READ: What are Adams’s four principles?

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If I have one operating philosophy about life, it is this: “Be cool to the pizza delivery dude; it’s good luck.” Four principles guide the pizza dude philosophy.

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Principle 1: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in humility and forgiveness. I let him cut me off in traffic, let him safely hit the exit ramp from the left lane, let him forget to use his blinker without extending any of my digits out the window or toward my horn because there should be one moment in my harried life when a car may encroach or cut off or pass and I let it go. Sometimes when I have become so certain of my ownership of my lane, daring anyone to challenge me, the pizza dude speeds by in his rusted Chevette. His pizza light atop his car glowing like a beacon reminds me to check myself as I flow through the world. After all, the dude is delivering pizza to young and old, families and singletons, gays and straights, blacks, whites, and browns, rich and poor, and vegetarians and meat lovers alike. As he journeys, I give safe passage, practice restraint, show courtesy, and contain my anger.

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Principle 2: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in empathy. Let’s face it: We’ve all taken jobs just to have a job because some money is better than none. I’ve held an assortment of these jobs and was grateful for the paycheck that meant I didn’t have to share my Cheerios with my cats. In the big pizza wheel of life, sometimes you’re the hot bubbly cheese and sometimes you’re the burnt crust. It’s good to remember the fickle spinning of that wheel.

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Principle 3: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in honor, and it reminds me to honor honest work. Let me tell you something about these dudes: They never took over a company and, as CEO, artificially inflated the value of the stock and cashed out their own shares, bringing the company to the brink of bankruptcy, resulting in twenty thousand people losing their jobs while the CEO builds a home the size of a luxury hotel. Rather, the dudes sleep the sleep of the just.

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Principle 4: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in equality. My measurement as a human being, my worth, is the pride I take in performing my job—any job—and the respect with which I treat others. I am the equal of the world not because of the car I drive, the size of the TV I own, the weight I can bench-press, or the calculus equations I can solve. I am the equal to all I meet because of the kindness in my heart. And it all starts here—with the pizza delivery dude.

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Tip him well, friends and brethren, for that which you bestow freely and willingly will bring you all the happy luck that a grateful universe knows how to return.

“Be Cool to the Pizza Dude” by Sarah Adams. © 2005 by Sarah Adams. From the book THIS I BELIEVE: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman. © 2006 by This I Believe, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company, LLC. CAUTION: Users are warned that this Selection is protected under copyright laws and downloading is strictly prohibited. The right to Reproduce or transfer the Selection via any medium must be secured from Henry Holt and Company, LLC.