Monday, August 19, 2013

All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten

All I really need to know about how to live & what to do & how to be I learned in kindergarten.  Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.
 
These are the things I learned:
-Share everything.
-Play fair.
-Don't hit people.
-Put things back where you found them.
-Clean up your own mess.
-Don't take things that aren't yours.
-Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
-Wash your hands before you eat.
-Flush.
-Warm cookies & milk are good for you.
-Live a balanced life - learn some & think some & draw & paint & sing & dance & play & work every day some.
-Take a nap every afternoon.
-When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands & stick together.
-Be aware of wonder.  Remember the little seen in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down & the plant goes up & nobody really knows how or why, but we are like that.
-Goldfish & hamsters & white mice & even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die.  So do we.
-And then remember the Dick-&-Jane books & the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK
 
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.  The Golden Rule & love & basic sanitation.  Ecology & politics & equality & sane living.
 
Take any one of those items & extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms & apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world & it holds true & clear & firm.  Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies & milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon & then lay down with our blankies for a nap.  Or if all governments had a basic policy to always put things back where they found them & to clean up their own mess.
 
And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands & stick together.
 

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