Ref' Original content: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum
An excerpt from the book : Robert Fulghum writes in “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten - “The inspiration for brevity came to me at a gasoline station. I managed to fill an old car’s tank with super deluxe high-octane go-juice. My old hoopy couldn’t handle it and got the willies--kept sputtering out at intersections and belching going downhill. I understood. My mine and my spirit get like that from time to time. Too much high-content information, and I get the existential willies--keep sputtering out at intersections where life choices must be made and I either know too much or not enough. The examined life is no picnic .”
Lessons from the Book I learnt:
- Live a balanced life : Work and Play, Eat and Exercise, Speech and Silence, Pleasure and Prayer and so on… lot of things in life to be balanced.
- Wash your hands before you eat : no explanation required.
- Don’t take things that aren’t yours : very important. Know what you want, take what you need and keep till you need. This is one habit that would have avoided all wars happened so far and are about to come in the future. Be it world wars, Pandavs and auravs, Ram and Ravan, India Independence, etc. all arose just because someone wanted to pick somebody else’s things.
- Share everything : This is something we start doing on our own when we are very young, no hidings, no differentiations, and no hassles in sharing at that time till we grow up and learn what is not to be learnt.
- Put things back when you found them : love, hatred … run your own imaginations…
- Play fair: very important but equally difficult. Try, it returns lot of happiness.
- Clean up your own mess : As and when you are the part of a mess, clear it, else…
- Don’t hit people : hit the cause of pain, you can’t hit the pain directly. Similarly don’t hit the people, hit the problem. Philosophy of life is hitting on people will bounce back on you and hit you.
- Flush : Flush your anger, bad habits, wastes, ill feelings… keep flushing.
- Take a nap every afternoon : if not possible, take a break from your regular work, by sitting idle for a while – blank, meditate, relax, close eyes, and walk a little. Just give yourself a break.
- Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you : enable cookies in your browser, which makes browsing faster. Jokes apart, just try fresh, warm cookies with cold milk.
- Learn some, think some, draw some, paint, sing, dance, play, and work everyday: don’t hesitate, you can do it, do it and see the difference.
- Say you’re sorry when you hurt someone : no need to explain, but only to realize it in time and say… else it becomes too late sometimes…
- Be aware of wonder : discover, encounter, face, welcome and be aware of wonder. Lot of things happen around, but goes unnoticed. Look around, wonder may be a perception taking a 360 degrees turn or anything else…
- When you go out in the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together : how lovely this statement is…
- 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 – ponder, think, imagine and explain to yourself…
- Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we – the crux of the matter, the reality of life, the completion of lifecycle…
- Remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all – LOOK - yep, look around, keep eyes and ears open, let sensory nerves not sublimed under the burdens of life, be light and absorbent every moment.
