Thursday, June 07, 2007

The Basics of Life

Yesterday I received an email from someone I don't know asking if I would add them to my daily thoughts list. They told me that someone forwarded my thoughts to them and that my writing reminded them of the author Robert Fulghum. I considered this a great compliment because I really like Robert Fulghum and have most of his books. He wrote a wonderful little book called All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten. The book is uncommon thoughts on common things. Here are the basics of his book. This advice will serve you well in life. The author discovered that wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain but there in the sand pile at Sunday school.

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 somebody.
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 everyday some.
Take a nap every afternoon. (My personal favorite)
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.

Here's why I sometimes want to run away and join the circus. This was my day yesterday.

Get out of bed at 6:15 AM and go to work in order to support basic life systems, i.e. water, electricity, housing, food, car, cable, CD's etc.
Leave work and pick up wife at her office.
Drive to the other side of town to check on mother in law in nursing home. (On Tuesdays and Thursdays, substitute go to daycare and pick up Chloe but I like that job)
Grab some dinner on the way home.
Take a bath and change clothes.
Continue laundry begun a day or two ago.
Read the morning paper and then fall asleep in chair.
Wake up and continue laundry. Take clothes out of dryer. Take clothes out of washer and put into dryer. Pick up another pile of clothes on the floor and put into washer.
Watch a movie with the family. (A Night at the Museum)
Continue laundry.
Load the dishwasher.
Prepare recycle bin for morning pick up.
Take shirts out of dryer, carry upstairs, and hang in closet.
Get ready for bed. Finally get there at 11:30 PM. Watch a little David Letterman. Turn off TV after today's top 10 list.
Fall asleep debunking the myth of the eight hour work day and thinking about how the whole cycle will begin again in little over six hours.

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