Earlier this month, I was driving across town with a friend of mine to see the movie Iron Man 2. My friend is an aficionado of comic book movies, so he had seen the first Iron Man and mentioned that he thought it was a great movie. En route, I confessed that I hadn't seen the first one and, so I wouldn't be completely lost while watching the sequel, I asked him to describe the plot of the first movie to me.

I wasn't always willing to do this. When I was a lot younger, if you had tried to explain the plot of a movie to me before I saw it, I would have thrown up my hands to my ears and started humming, trying to keep you from spoiling anything about the movie. But I don't do that anymore, for a couple of reasons.

First, if I hear the plot of a movie, or get the twist ending leaked to me before I see it (can anyone say Sixth Sense?), and if that completely spoils the movie for me, then it probably wasn't a very good movie to begin with. It's the journey, not the destination.

But second, and more importantly, I've learned that good experiences in life are not an exhaustible resource. If I have one movie ruined for me, there's lots of other movies out there that I can happily watch instead. And this lesson doesn't just apply to movies. There's always something else I can find to enjoy, whether it's a night out enjoying live music, taking a bike ride somewhere I've never been, or reading a really good book.

Occasionally, the experience is ruined by some small factor or it's boring. That's okay...I've got plenty of tomorrows to try again.