the manual

"Life would be so much easier if everyone read the manual."

I read that on a church sign as I drove home today. I know it was referring to the Bible, but what if there was one? Would it make life easier? In some ways, I guess it would. Awkward moments in life would no longer exist (although I'm not sure that's a good thing), and we'd always know how to react when life throws us curveballs. But then we would have clear expectations of what life should be like, wouldn't we? And if greater expectations provide more opportunities for disappointment, then is a manual such a good thing? The satisfaction that we all search for in life would be even more difficult to find, I think.

But if there was a manual, I wonder what it would say about human relationships. To merely say they're complicated would be an understatement. What more would it say?