~ Robert Fulghum, ‘All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten’.
Title of the first essay. Nevertheless, 'To the reader from the author' ends with "I will not make the usual reservation that "the opinions expressed within are entirely my own." The older I get the more I realize how much I think is a composite of the goods selected from the supermarket shelves of the world of thought. What is mine is an attitude about what passes through my mind. To expound on that theme, the 15th revised edition of this book begin with a profound admonition found on a bumper sticker:
"DONT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU THINK"
“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge.
That
myth is more potent than history.
That dreams are more powerful than facts.
That hope always triumphs over experience.
That laughter is the only cure for
grief.
And I believe that love is stronger than death.”
The book begins with Credo:
“These are the things I learned (in Kindergarten):
1. Share everything.
2. Play fair.
3. Don't hit people.
4. Put things back where you found them.
5. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS.
6. Don't take things that aren't yours.
7. Say you're SORRY when you HURT somebody.
8. Wash your hands before you eat.
9. Flush.
10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
11. Live a balanced life - learn some and drink some and
draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.
12. Take a nap every afternoon.
13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic,
hold hands, and stick together.
14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the
Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows
how or why, but we are all like that. And few days later dead. (LifeDeath one short event)
15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little
seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first
word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.”
"Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living."
"Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. “Think what a better world it would be if we all-the whole world-had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess."
And it is still true, no matter how old you are-when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.”
In between you have:
In Deep Kindergarden it says that LifeDeath is one short event, don't be surprised when doctor say life is short, you need to know that.
The Rest of Story - Soon enough, there will be sleepless nights when "what happen next?" will not be plot inquiry but the entreaty of prayer.
“Nobody goes "AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" when they sing it. Maybe because it puts the life adventure in such clear and simple terms. The small creature is alive and looks for adventure. Here's the drainpipe--a long tunnel going up toward some light. The spider doesn't even think about it--just goes. Disaster befalls it--rain, flood, powerful foces. And the spider is knocked down and out beyond where it started. Does the spider say, "To hell with that"? No. Sun comes out--clears things up--dries off the spider. And the small creature goes over to the drainpipe and looks up and thinks it really wants to know what is up there.” -"Capacity of life to triumph over adversity - about perseverance in adventure"
All I really need know is that Sometime acting foolish and being wise are the same. Puddles are there as a test about staying young as long as you can. Do it now or it would be 'Too Late.'
“Anything not worth doing is worth not doing well.” - Elias Schwarts 145th incarnation of Haiho Lama
He is an angel, marrying Rachel who had cancel and could not have children, but they ended up having four. some Angels can fix your soles and mend your soul the same time.
“Hide-and-seek, grown-up style. Wanting to hide. Needing to be sought. Confused about being found.”. "I don't want anyone to know." "what will people think?' "I don't want to bother anyone." - Get found kid. “Every person passing through this life will unknowingly leave something and take something away.”
“Now Everybody has some secret goals in life...Sometimes you can get what you want and what you need at the same time.” "....
Chicken Fried Steak:“And sure, I know if you eat this way you'll die. So? If you don't eat this way you're still going to die. Why not die happy?”
Charles Boyer's story - was no move. There was only one women. For forty -four years as in the first year, His wife Patricia. A life long love affair. soul mates. He could not bear to tell her she had cancer, set by her bed side to provide hope and cheer. She died in his arms, two days later he was also dead.
“Why is it that love and life so often have to be carried forth with so much pain and strain and mess? I ask you why is that?
Why isn't love easy?
I don't know. And the raccoons don't say.”
“Until you have experienced raccoons mating underneath your bedroom at three in the morning, you have missed one of life's sensational moments.”
Larry Walters flying up in balloon in 1982 is a proof that “It’s the spirit here that counts. The time may be long, the vehicle may be strange or unexpected. But if the dream is held close to the heart, and imagination is applied to what there is close at hand, everything is still possible.”
"Ten years after his flight - on October 6, 1993 - Larry Walters went hiking in the Angeles National Forest alone. He shot himself in the heart. And died. Why? Why? We don't know why. Nobody saw this coming. Larry left no word. "
At baloon launch in France, Old Ben Franklin said: "What good isa newborn baby?" "This ballon will open skies to mankind." “Imagination is more important than information. Einstein said that, and he should know. And they come. And they look. And we push. And they fly. We to stay and die on our beds. They to go and die howsoever, yet inspiring those who come after them to find their own edge. And fly.”
Laundry - “When I’m finished, I have a sense of accomplishment. A sense of competence. I am good at doing the laundry. At least that. And it’s a religious experience, you know. Water, earth, fire—polarities of wet and dry, hot and cold, dirty and clean. The great cycles—round and round—beginning and end—Alpha and Omega, amen. I am in touch with the GREAT SOMETHING-OR-OTHER. For a moment, at least, life is tidy and has meaning.” "I like cheer, I like happy wash"
"We've made a lot of progress, you know. We used to think that disease was an act of God. Then we figured out it was a product of human ignorance, so we've been cleaning up our act-literally-ever since. We've been getting the excrement off our hands and clothes and bodies and food and houses. If only the scientific experts could come up with something to get it out of our minds. One cup of fixit fizzle that will lift the dirt from our lives, soften our hardness, protect our inner parts, improve our processing, reduce our yellowing and wrinkling, improve our natural color, and make us sweet and good.”
"I am a sucker for colorful packaging. Any old product that says "NEW AND IMPROVED" on it calls out to me. I, too, hope to be New and Improved someday."
Medicine cabinets, in our bathroom; our bathrooms are "Temple of Reality". "Most people are secret slobs. Deepest mysteries of the race are tucked into the nooks and crannies of the bathroom, where we go to be alone, to confront ourselves in the mirror, to comb and curry and scrape and preen our hides, to coax our aging and ailing bodies into on more day, to clean ourselves and reliever ourselves, to paint and deodorize our surface, to meditate and consult our oracle and attempt to improve our lot.
“Ignorance and power and pride are a deadly mixture, you know.” Good Samaritan
“It wasn’t in books. It wasn’t in a church. What I needed to know was out there in the world.” “Keep your eyes open. Suspend judgment. Be useful,” Bar Story was important to know
"We will help you. You are worth helping." “There is nothing in your budget for joy. No books, no flowers, no music, not even a cold beer. And there is nothing in your budget to give away to someone else. We don’t help people who don’t have better values than you do.” "What I had to give away was this story itself."
Majority of stuff come from two sources People and meteorites. It isn't dirt. It's all compost. Cosmic compost. We are the stuff of stars.
“Speed and efficiency do not always increase the quality of life.” "Pushing leaves with mechanical air is not the same as hearing the wind blow through the trees." Vaccum Vs. Handtools.
“It is not true, by the way, that mermaids do not exist. I know at least one personally. I have held her hand.” {Reminded me of why fit in, when you are meant to stand out}
“If you only make it up, you never have to live it down.”
"Sometimes the world seems like a fine place, don't it?" - Disagree? - Weiser's still there - Idaho.
"Scientists tell us the Earth has been around 4.5 billion years and has another 5.7 billion to go. What does a flower care about what label we apply in passing? The labels only stick to us. "
"There's no commercial value in water of this kind. There are two secret ingredients, which can't be manufactured or bottled, imagination and memory. Such vintage refreshment is always a product of home brewing. The liquid is flavored by experience and given character by the creative effort it takes to fill the wine cellar of the heart. Let the glass be filled and lifted - Cheers!"
Third Aid : After the Frist and second, "ABC check up - for Airway, Blood and Comfort or something like that." "Ask Are you Breathing, Bleeding, Comfy - If answer is Yes, No, Yes you are going to live longer. In addition to ABC there is the Placebo Effect. No matter what you do, anywhere from 30 to 60 % of what gets wrong with you heals itself if you just give it time and think good thoughts. It's kind of like staying amused while your body does its things. Doctor's can help only 15%. Your body does the rest. Or else you die. Your body makes house call - so does your brain. This is crucial. When in down, get down. Take a nap.
Yelling : “Machines and relatives get most of the yelling. But never trees. As for people, well, the Solomon islanders may have a point. Yelling at living thing does tend to kill the spirit in them. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts.” In the Solomon Islands in south Pacific, if people are unable to cut down trees they yell at them for thirty days. At the end of it, the tree dies and falls over.
“So you drive as far as you can, even when you can clearly read the sign. You want to think you are exempt, that it doesn’t apply to you. But it does. Life is still a dead end. And we still have a hard time believing it”
Testing is needed in life. Even after school , of most of the lessons. “But love may have to be left off the exam. Most of us will never learn.” Also we will never know - already over questioned:
“Why is there Something instead of Nothing?” "When will I have time, and who knows where the time goes?" When is enough enough? What are people for? Is there life before death? Is it true that little knowledge is a dangerous thing? If bird's fly over the rainbow, why can't I? Lucy asking Charlie Brown, "Don't you wish you knew back then what you know now?" Charlie stares blank-eyed for a while, and then ask, "What do I know now?"
Buffalo Tavern: “The Indian danced on alone. The crowd clapped up the beat. The Indian danced with a chair. The crowd went crazy. The band faded. The crowd cheered. The Indian held up his hands for silence as if to make a speech. Looking at the band and then the crowd, the Indian said, "Well, what're you waiting for? Let's DANCE.”
Gummy Lump - gift made by kids, the best ever gifts.
“We can do no great things; only small things with great love.(Mother Teresa)”
Census- “Every person passing through this life will unknowingly leave something and take something away. Most of this “something” cannot be seen or heard or numbered or scientifically detected or counted. It’s what we leave in the minds of other people and what they leave in ours. Memory. The census doesn’t count it. Nothing counts without it.”
Pass it on: “The Sikh gave him the money. When Menon asked for his address so that he could repay the man, the Sikh said that Menon owed the debt to any stranger who came to him in need, as long as he lived. The help came from a stranger and was to be repaid to a stranger.”
Stargazing, grandfather would take you out to see stars. Missed both grandfathers. And tell him I said I'd really like it if he came home for Christmas.” “You'd like my grandfather. And he'd like you, I think. Happy Grandfather's Day to him, wherever he is. If you see him, let him take you out to see the stars some night.
What is real does not matter. "It's harmless enough for yearning to be so strong that what you need becomes very real in some corner of your heart. Picasso said, "Everything you can imagine is real"""Grandfather is made of the cloth of yearning and imagination."
"Some people are concerned about how it is that good things happen to bad people, and there are those concerned about how bad things happen to good people. But my grandfather is interested in those times when miracles happen to ordinary people. Here again he like small scale."
"When small miracles occur for ordinary people, day by ordinary day When not only did the worst not happen, but you got the gift of what-could-never-happen-but-did, How grand to beat the odds for a change. My grandfather says he blesses God each day when he takes himself off to bed having eaten and not having been eaten once again.
In a sense we make up all our relatives, though. ...Especially if they are dead or distant. We take what we know, which isn't ever the whole story, and we add it to what we wish and need, and stitch it together into some kind of family quilt to wrap up in on our mental couch. .......Memories are creative. There is always the conflicting truth of many witnesses. Always. We make ourselves up, fusing what we are with what we wish into what we must become...it is....Here is the good part: Thinking about the grandfather I wish I had prepared me for the grandfather I wish to be and am becoming. ....It is a preparation.
“Moths and butterflies are not the same thing. Moths sneak around in the dark munching your sweater and are ugly. Butterflies hand out with flowers in the daytime and are pretty. Never mind any facts or what silkworm moths are responsible for, or what poisonous butterflies do.”
“Out of the mouths of babes may come gems of wisdom, but also garbage.”
"It is said that people don't like to talk about death. Yet in just one afternoon I heard people say: "Your mother will kill you if you wear that outside the house." "Working overtime is murder". "I laughed so hard I thought I'd die." "My feet are killing me."
Do I believe in near-death experience? Yes.
Life is a near-death experience.
The leading cause of death is life.
Is there life after death? I'm dying to find out.
“... all things live only if something else is cleared out of the path to make way. No death; no life. No exceptions. Things must come and go. People. Years. Ideas. Everything. The wheel turns, and the old is cleared away as fodder for the new.”
What if we all had Term limits and would need to renew our citizenships?
“What I notice is that every adult or child I give a new set of Crayolas to goes a little funny. The kids smile, get a glazed look on their faces, pour the crayons out, and just look at them for a while....The adults always get the most wonderful kind of sheepish smile on their faces--a mixture of delight and nostalgia and silliness. And they immediately start telling you about all their experiences with Crayolas.”
"May be we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A Beauty Bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would lanuch one first - before we tried anything else. .....people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination instead of death.
“And I’m not confused about the lack of, or the need for, imagination in low or high places. We could do better we must do better. There are far worse things to drop on people than crayolas.”
“It doesn’t matter what you say you believe - it only matters what you do.” Father would always say Jesus was Jew around, Christmas, which would annoy mother. He was a great Heathen but worked for the Salvation Army year after year as long as he lived. The Great Heathen : Heathen is a dated term used primarily of someone who is not religious, or whose religion is not Judaism, Islam, or especially Christianity.
Brass Rule:
“My mother was pulling my leg on that one. I have collected so much gift-wrapped trash over the years from people who copped out and hurriedly bought a little plastic cheapie to give under the protective flag of good thoughts. I tell you, it is the gift that counts. Or rather, people who think good thoughts give good gifts. It ought to be a rule—the Brass Rule of Gift Exchange.”
“I know what I really want for Christmas.
I want my childhood back.
Nobody is going to give me that. I might give at least the memory of it to myself if I try. I know it doesn't make sense, but since when is Christmas about sense, anyway? It is about a child, of long ago and far away, and it is about the child of now. In you and me. Waiting behind the door of our hearts for something wonderful to happen. A child who is impractical, unrealistic, simpleminded and terribly vulnerable to joy.”
"It's delight and simplicity that I want. Foolishness and fantasy and noise. Angels and miracles and wonder and innocence and magic. That's closer to what I want."
Valentine Christmas Tree: "It's about loving something - not just one's self or one's family or one's neighbor. It's about loving life - about loving this world - and seeing this world as our living room. "
Christmas in August: "I guess wonder and awe and joy are always there in the attic of one's mind somewhere, and it doesn't take a lot to set it off."
Beethoven's Nineth: Best remedy for depression. - Ode to joy. "Crazy drams can come true when the dreamer has a crazy fairy godmother or two. "
“Does the giraffe know what he's for? Or care? Or even think about his place in things? A giraffe has a black tongue twenty-seven inches long and no vocal cords. A giraffe has nothing to say. He just goes on giraffing.”
Next Six Stores: About neighbor. “And good neighbors make a huge difference in the quality of life. I agree.” We get to choose our house but not our neighbors. A lady, who would look for the trees in the yard and neighbors before buying a house.
“The leaves let go, the seeds let go, and I must let go sometimes, too, and cast my lot with another of nature’s imperfect but tenacious survivors.”
“Remember, most of us got something for nothing the first time just by showing up here at birth. Now we have to qualify.”
“I get tired of hearing it's a crummy world and that people are no damned good. What kind of talk is that? I know a place in Payette, Idaho, where a cook and a waitress and a manager put everything they've got into laying a chicken-fried steak on you.”
“The gift was not large as money goes, and my need was not great, but the spirit of the gift is beyond price and leaves me blessed and in debt.”
“We even make ourselves up, fusing what we are with what we wish into what we must become. I'm not sure why it must be so, but it is.”
“You will continue to read stories of crookedness and corruption - of policemen who lie and steal, doctors who reap where they do not sew, politicians on the take. Don't be misled. They are news because they are the exceptions.”
“Liberation, I guess, is everybody getting what they think they want, without knowing the whole truth. Or in other words, liberation finally amounts to being free from things we don't like in order to be enslaved by things we approve of. Here's to the eternal tandem.”
“As one old gentleman put it, " Son, I don't care if you're stark nekkid and wear a bone in your nose. If you kin fiddle, you're all right with me. It's the music we make that counts.”
“It's just this: that there are places we all come from-deep-rooty-common places- that makes us who we are. And we disdain them or treat them lightly at our peril. We turn our backs on them at the risk of self-contempt. There is a sense in which we need to go home again-and can go home again. Not to recover home, no. But to sanctify memory.”
“Th communique repeated the information. “He went to the body of his wife and wouldn’t leave it, although she was dead.”
How strange. why didn’t he run and save his own hide? What made him go back? is it possible that he loved her? Is it possible that he wanted to hold her in his arms one last time? Is it possible that he needed to cry and grieve? Is it possible that he felt the stupidity of war? Is it possible that he felt the injustice of fate? Is it possible that he thought of children, born or unborn? Is it possible that he didn’t care what become of him now?
It’s possible. We don’t know. Or at least we don’t know for certain. But we can guess. His actions answer.
And so he sits alone in a prison. Not a “Russian” or a “Communist” or “solider” or “enemy” or any of these categories. Just-a-man who cared for just-a-woman for just-a-time more than anything else.
Here’s to you, Nicolai Pestretsov, wherever you may go and be, for giving powerful meaning to the promises that are the same everywhere; for dignifying that covenant that is the same in any language— “for better or for worse, in good times and bad, in sickness and in health, to love and honor and cherish unto death, so help me God.” You kept the faith; kept it bright— kept it shining. Bless you!”
“Life will examine us continually to see if we have understood and have practiced what we were taught that first year of school.”
“I may be wrong”
“Peace is not something you wish for; it's something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away!”
“Knowledge is meaningful only if it is reflected in action. The human race has found out the hard way that we are what we do, not just what we think.”
“Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.”
“Embassy Row in Washington, D.C., the summer I turned”
“As long as life exists, something always happens next. There are always consequences—always sequels.”
“It is comforting to know that some very old and very simple ways of getting from one place to another still work.”
The Odds:
“Always trust your fellow man. And always cut the cards. Always trust God. And always build your house on high ground. Always love thy neighbor. And always pick a good neighborhood to live in.”
“About winning and losing: It isn't important, what really counts is how you play the game. About playing the game: PLAY TO WIN!”
Where the snow goes:
“And snow—snow is not my enemy, I tell him. Snow is God’s way of telling people to slow down and rest and stay in bed for a day. And besides, snow always solves itself. Mixes with the leaves to form more earth, I tell him. Think compost, says I.”
"For he and I - and even you - will become what the leaves and snow become, and go where the leaves and snow go - whether we rake or shovel or not.
Hair: “Without realizing it ,we fill important places in each other's lives. It's that way with the guy at the corner grocery, the mechanic at the local garage, the family doctor, teacher, neighbours, co-workers. Good people who are alway 'there', who can be relied upon in small, important ways. People who teach us, bless us, encourage us, support us, uplift us in the dailiness of life. We never tell them. I don't know why, but we don't”
"And, of course, we fill that role ourselves. There are those who depend in us, watch us, learn from us, take from us. And we never know."
“Don't sell yourself short.
You may never have proof of your importance, but you are more important than you think. There are always those who couldn’t do without you. The rub is that you don’t always know who.”
“It reminds me of an old Sufi story of a good man who was granted one wish by God. The man said he would like to go about doing good without knowing about it. God granted his wish. And then God decided that it was such a good idea, he would grant that wish to all human beings. And so it has been to this day.”
There are reflections
- 17. Everything looks better at a distance
- 18. If you made it up, you have to live it down
- 19. Everything is compost
- 20. There is no they - only us
- 21. It's a mistake to believe everything you think.
- 22. You can get used to anything
- 23. Sometimes things are just as bad as they seem
- 24. It helps if you always have somebody to kiss goodnight
“Everything looks better at a distance. If you made it up, you have to live it down. Everything is compost. There is no they—only us. It’s a mistake to believe everything you think. You can get used to anything. Sometimes things are just as bad as they seem. It helps if you always have somebody to kiss goodnight.” Add these too, to the kindergarten Credo list.
And ends with a CODA
Leaving midsentence without punctuation or explanation , to come back again and
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