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 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 wonder -- 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 and 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 3:00 every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap -- Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and cleaned 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
© Copyright Robert Fulghum