I am hereby officially
tendering my resignation as an adult.
I have decided I would like to accept
the responsibilities of a six-year-old again.
I want to go to McDonald's and think
that it's a four star restaurant.
I want to sail sticks
across fresh mud puddles
and make a sidewalk with rocks.
I want to think M&Ms are better than money
because you can eat them.
I want to lie under a big oak tree
and run a lemonade stand with my friends
on a hot summer's day.
I want to return to a time
when life was simple.
When all you knew were colors,
multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes,
but that didn't bother you,
because you didn't know what you didn't know
and you didn't care.
All you knew was to be happy
because you were blissfully unaware
of all the things
that should make you worried or upset.
I want to think the world is fair.
That everyone is honest and good.
I want to believe
that anything is possible.
I want to be oblivious
to the complexities of life
and be overly excited
by the little things again.
I want to live simple again.
I don't want my day to consist of
computer crashes, mountains of paperwork,
depressing news, how to survive
more days in the month
than there is money in the bank,
doctor bills, gossip, illness,
and loss of loved ones.
I want to believe
in the power of smiles,
hugs, a kind word,
truth, justice, peace,
dreams, the imagination, mankind,
and making angels in the snow.
So . . . here's my checkbook and my car-keys,
my credit card bills and my 401K statements.
I am officially resigning from adulthood.
And if you want to discuss this further,
you'll have to catch me first, 'cause . .
TAG! YOU'RE IT!!!!!!
ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW
I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN
All 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 sandpile at Sunday 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 milk
are good for you.
Live a balanced life -
learn some and 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 styrofoam 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 styrofoam cup-
they all die.
So do we.
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.
(from the book by Robert Fulghum)
