Today at breakfast my head was spinning with topics and arguments: political civil war, too many illegal immigrants, Europe is finished, where will we get oil, windmills are the answer, we need more vacant houses, we have a lousy health system, we must legalize drugs because there's nothing we can do about it, and on and on and on. My God, if I listened to the TV "experts," and believed them, I'd be afraid to get out of the bed each morning.
Who really knows what they are talking about? I estimate 5 percent of those in the media and reality technology do know what they are talking about. The problem is plowing through the verbal static to reach the 5 percent.
While in this state of mental confusion, I opened a folder I keep called good common sense (the 5 percent). In it was an article from 1988. I don't recall the newspaper, but the article was written by Dr. Robert Fulghum, a retired minister from Edmonds, Wash. I think it was a summary article from his best seller. It is simply stated, yet profound, and was refreshing to read again.
ALL I REALLY NEEDED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN
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 sandbox 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 are sorry when you hurt someone. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold 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 for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of the world's wonders. 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, white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup - they all die. So do we.
And then remember the book about 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 sane living.
Think of what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation to always put things back where we found them and clean up our 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.
Thank you, Reverend Fulghum, for a few moments of sanity.
Ken Seifert is a 40-year resident of Andover and former superintendent of the Andover schools.
