Gail Salata

Most of what 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 is a sandbox at nursery school.

These are things I learned:

Share everything.

Say you are sorry when you hurt somebody.

Play fair.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Put things away where you found them.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Clean up your own mess.

Live a balanced life.

Don’t take things that are not yours.

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.

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 laid down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in out 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.