All I need to know I learned in Kindergarten
Yes, it is true. I got this book as an audio book and listened to it while running errands. If you saw a grown woman driving her toddler around and laughing like a loon then you saw me while I was listening to it. Written by Robert Fulghum, it is absolutely a wonderful read/listen to. It was just what I needed to hear. Funny, deep, profound and totally true; his ideas were like a breath of fresh air. All I need to know I learned in Kindergarten was first published in 1986, but its wisdom is timeless and Fulghum does a great job of telling it like it is in a way even children in Kindergarten would understand it and appreciate it. The book contains fifty short essays, ranging in length from approximately 200 to approximately 1,000 words, which are ruminations on topics ranging from surprises, holidays, childhood, death, and the lives of interesting people including Mother Teresa. In his introduction, Fulghum describes these as having been “written over many years and addressed to friends, family, a religious community, and myself, with no thought of publication in book form.” One of my favorite essays is the one about crayons. He talks about how a box of crayons (I love crayons) makes adults and children alike giddy with happiness.
Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A Beauty Bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air — explode softly — and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth — boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn’t go cheap either — not little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peace and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination instead of death. A child who touched one wouldn’t have his hand blown off. [from the book]
I am definitely going to buy this book give them away as gifts to friends and loved ones. We all need innocent childlike curiosity and cheer in our lives.
