Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what
to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not to
be found at the top of the graduate school mountain, but right
there in the sandpile 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 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 and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balance life - learn some and think some draw and paint
and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands
and stick together.
Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seen in the styrofoam
cup? The roots do down and the plant goes up and nobody really
know how or why. We are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed
in the styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first
word you learned, the biggest work of all: LOOK.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden
Rule and love and basic sanitation. The rules of ecology and
politics and equality and sane living.
If you take any one of those lessons you learned in
kindergarten and apply them to your family life or your work or
your government or your world, they will hold together true and
clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all -
the whole world had cookies and mile about 3 o'clock every
afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if all
governments had a basic policy to always put things back where they
found them and clean up their own messes.
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.