Robert Fulghum

(f. 1937)

"Robert Fulghum, one of America's most popular authors. He married young and spent years torn between being a responsible corporate type and a bohemian evening bartender, ultimately finding his place as a Unitarian minister. His first marriage broke up, and his four kids went through the kinds of things most kids do. He became the kind of guy who countered the blues by wearing his grandchild's propeller-top beanie as he walked to work, eating Cheerios with jelly beans, and listening to Beethoven's Ninth through earphones. His work as a minister and as a writer has been to provoke and invoke some sense that life can be lived with a moral purpose, and that it is worth living. "

fra http://www.peoplesuccess.com/fulghum.htm

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 that I learned:
Share everything
Play fair
Don't hit people
Put things back where you found them
Clean up your 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 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 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 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 the 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

 

 

Fulghum’s Recommendation’s:

(somewhere between Murphy’s Law and The Ten Commandments)

1) Buy lemonade from any kid who is selling.
2) Anytime you can vote on anything—vote!
3) Attend the 25th reunion of your high school class.
4) Choose having time over having money.
5) Always take the scenic route.
6) Give at least something to any beggar who asks.
7) Give money to all street musicians.
8) Always be someone’s Valentine.
9) When the circus comes to town, be there.

Eleven step guide to being handy round the house

fra "Maybe, Maybe not"

  1. If you can't find a screwdriver, use a knife. If you break off the tip, it's an improved screwdriver.
  2. Try to work alone. An audience is rarely any help.
  3. Despite what you may have been told by your mother, praying and cursing are both helpful in home repair ... but only if you are working alone.
  4. Work in the kitchen whenever you can ... many fine tools are there, its warm and dry, and you are close to the refrigerator.
  5. If it's electronic, get a new one .... or consult a twelve-year-old.
  6. Stay simple minded: Get a new battery; replace the bulb or fuse; see if the tank is empty; try turning it to the "on" switch; or just paint over it.
  7. Always take credit for miracles. If you dropped the alarm clock while taking it apart and it suddenly starts working, you have healed it.
  8. Regardless of what people say, kicking, pounding, and throwing sometimes DOES help.
  9. If something looks level, it is level.
  10. If at first you don't succeed, redefine success.
  11. Above all, if what you've done is stupid, but it works, then it isn't stupid.