Conference quark::human_relations-v1

353.0. "Wisdom In The Sandbox" by KRAKEN::HUNZEKER (Bill Hunzeker) Thu Jul 16 1987 18:56

I received the following in the mail yesterday from a grad school
professor and long-time friend -- thought I'd share it with you.




The following remarks were made in 1985 by Robert Fulghum, an educator 
and Unitarian minister, at the 25th anniversary celebration of the 
Little School in Washington state.  The remarks, specifically 
delivered in honor of the school's founder and director, Eleanor 
Siegl, were reprinted in the Congressional Record.
                             --------------------

			  *   *   *   *   *

			WISDOM IN THE SANDBOX

	Socrates insisted that the unexamined life is not worth 
living, and there's wisdom in that to be sure.  But the examined life
isn't always a picnic either.

	In such times I fall back on what I've come to think of as a 
Kindergarten State of Mind.  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 at the top of the graduate school mountain but there 
in the sand pile at nursery 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 and cold milk are good for you.

		Live a balanced life.  Learn some, think some and
		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 out for traffic,
		hold hands and stick together.

	Be aware of wonder.  Remember the little seed in the plastic 
cup.  The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows 
how or why, but we are all like that.

	Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed 
in the plastic cup -- they all die.

	And so do we.

	And remember the book, DICK AND JANE, 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 them into sophisticated adult terms and 
apply them to your family life or your work or your government or your 
world and they hold true and clear and firm.

	Think what a better world it would be if we all -- the whole 
world -- had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and lay 
down with our blankets for a nap.  Or if the United States of America 
had as a basic policy to always put things back where it found them 
and cleaned up its 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.

	Look, Look.

	See Dick, See Jane, Look, Look.

	See You, See Me, See Us, See The World, See the Universe, See 
Life, See Death, Oh, Look And See!

		

    Do we regress as we get older?_:-}

    Nah, we just realize that being child-like is hardly a disgrace, but
    rather a blessing. But if you choose to look at it as regressing, then
    you may. 
    
    	Jon

    >>But if you choose to look at it as regressing, then you may.
    
    Gee, .... thanks Jon, ... Its always nice to know that I have a choice_:-)

Rules for Being Human

1. You will recieve a body

You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period 
this time around.

2. You will learn lessons

You are  enrolled in a fulltime informal school called life.  Each day in 
this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons.  You may like 
the lessons or you may think they are irrelevant and stupid.

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons

Growth is a process  of  trial and error:  experimentation.  The "failed" 
experiments are as much a  part  of  the  process as the experiments that 
ultimately "worked".

4.  A lessons is repeated until learned

A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned 
it.  When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.

5.  Learning lessons does not end

There is not part of life that  does  not  contain  lessons.   If you are 
alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6.  "There" is no better than "here"

When  your "there" becomes your "here", you will  simply  obtain  another 
"there" that will, again look better than "here".

7.  Others are simply mirrors of you

You cannot love or hate something about another person  unless it reflect 
to you something that you love or hate about yourself.

8.  What you make of your life is up to you

You have all the tools and resources you need.   What you do with them is 
up to you.  The choice is yours.

9.  Your answers lie inside you

The answers to life's questions lie inside you.  All you  need  to  do is 
look, listen and trust.

10. You will forget all this

                                        (from S. Runco)
    

    <--(.4)
    
    Where does that come from?  (i.e., who/what is "S. Runco" and
    if s/he is a person, what document is the quotation from).
    
    I want to write that out and frame it.
                                                              
    						=maggie