Karen Restivo
In Other Words....
Our world has turned out to be so complicated.
The irony in that statement is that the world is a canvas from which human beings create complexity from their own desire to be in control.
To suggest a desire to return to simpler times, is to blindly believe there were simpler times.
They may look simpler in our memories, but history recalls dark periods in every generation.
The current generation can be referred to as a “new and improved” era based on the advancements in science, technology, quantum physics and medicine; and yet, we find the world today more entrenched in calamity and discord as we awaken to daily cliffhangers.
What’s going to happen?
What are we going to do?
Interestingly, they asked similar questions during biblical times.
Remember the old saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
It’s the rigid, underlying fundamentals that act as a barrier determining our pace on this journey.
Getting back to the basics, author Robert Fulghum wrote the book, “All I Really Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten” to highlight the simple truths in life:
*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 cold milk are good for you.
*Live a balanced life - learn some, drink some, draw some, paint some and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
*Take a nap every afternoon.
*When you go out in 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’re 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.
In other words, this never is or was a dress rehearsal.
The films been rolling since day one (figuratively speaking). Each of our names roll in the end credits.
Being our best selve matters. Mistakes happen, grievous decisions occur, but the answer is to begin again and again until we get it right.
There’s no such thing as staying neutral when it comes to truth and justice.
Fulghum summarized his thoughts in his book with the quote: “It doesn’t matter what you say you believe – it only matters what you do,” which falls right in line with Desmond Tutu’s famous quote, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
And to think this memo originated in kindergarten.
Karenrestivo57@gmail.com