Robert Fulghum wrote a book years ago titled, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. ” He identified 16 principles to live by. In this day and age of online outrage and everyone is an expert on everything, I wonder if we would all be better off if we acted more like how we were taught to behave in kindergarten. These are Fulghum’s keys to life. Some good advice because COVID-19 has brought out some of the best and some of the worst in our society, including The Church.
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.
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.”