“Uh-oh” embraces “Here we go again” and “Now What?” and “You never can tell what’s going to happen next” and “So much for plan A” and “Hang on, we’re coming to a tunnel” and “No sweat” and “Tomorrow’s another day” and “You can’t unscramble an egg” and “A hundred years from now it won’t make any difference.” “Uh-oh” is more than a momentary reaction to small problems. “Uh-oh” is an attitude—a perspective on the universe. It is a power of an equation that summarizes my view of the conditions of existence: “Uh-huh” + “oh-wow” + “uh-oh” + “oh, God” = “ah-hah!”
FROM BEGINNING TO END Why "rituals"? My thinking was set in motion by those who, knowing I was a parish minister for many years, have asked me for advice about ceremonies and celebrations. They wanted words to use at graduations, funerals, and the welcoming of children. They inquired about grace at family meals, the reaffirmation of wedding vows, and ways to heal wounds suffered in personal conflict. People requested help with the rituals of solitude, such as meditation, prayer, and contemplation. . . . Rituals do not always involve words, occasions, officials, or an audience. Rituals are often silent, solitary, and self-contained. The most powerful rites of passage are reflective--when you look back on your life again and again, paying attention to the rivers you have crossed and the gates you have opened and walked on through, the thresholds you have passed over. I see ritual when people sit together silently by an open fire. Remembering. As human beings have remembered for thousands and thousands of years. FULGHUM
From the author to the reader: Show-and-Tell was the very best part of school for me, both as a student and as a teacher. As a kid, I put more into getting ready for my turn to present than I put into the rest of my homework. Show-and-Tell was real in a way that much of what I learned in school was not. It was education that came out of my life experience. As a teacher, I was always surprised by what I learned from these amateur hours. A kid I was sure I knew well would reach down into a paper bag he carried and fish out some odd-shaped treasure and attach meaning to it beyond my most extravagant expectation. Again and again I learned that what I thought was only true for me . . . only valued by me . . . only cared about by me . . . was common property. The principles guiding this book are not far from the spirit of Show-and-Tell. It is stuff from home—that place in my mind and heart where I most truly live. P.S. This volume picks up where I left off in All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, when I promised to tell about the time it was on fire when I lay down on it.
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER I once began a list of the contradictory notions I hold: Look before you leap. He who hesitates is lost. Two heads are better than one. If you want something done right, do it yourself. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Better safe than sorry. Out of sight, out of mind. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. You can't tell a book by its cover. Clothes make the man. Many hands make light work. Too many cooks spoil the broth. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. It's never too late to learn. Never sweat the small stuff. God is in the details. And so on. The list goes on forever. Once I got so caught up in this kind of thinking that I wore two buttons on my smock when I was teaching art. One said, "Trust me, I'm a teacher." The other replied, "Question Authority." [signature] Fulghum
Robert Fulghum's new book begins with a question we've all asked ourselves: "What on Earth have I done?" As Fulghum finds out, the answer is never easy and, almost always, surprising. For the last couple of years, Fulghum has been traveling the world - from Seattle to the Moab Desert to Crete - looking for a few fellow travelers interested in thinking along with him as he delights in the unexpected: trick-or-treating with your grandchildren dressed like a large rabbit, pots of daffodils blooming in mid-November, a view of the earth from outer space, the mysterious night sounds of the desert, every man's trip to a department store to buy socks, the raucous all-night long feast that is Easter in Greece, the trials and tribulations of plumbing problems and the friendship one can strike up with someone who doesn't share the same language. What on Earth Have I Done? is an armchair tour of everyday life as seen by Robert Fulghum, one of America's great essayists, a man who has two feet planted firmly on the earth, one eye on the heavens and, at times, a tongue planted firmly in his cheek. Fulghum writes to his fellow travelers, with a sometimes light heart, about the deep and vexing mysteries of being alive and says, "This is my way of bringing the small boat of my life within speaking distance of yours. Hello...
Essays on life that will resonate deeply as readers discover how universal insights can be found in ordinary events. More than thirty years ago, Robert Fulghum published a simple credo—a credo that became the phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Today, after being embraced around the world and selling more than seven million copies, Fulghum’s book retains the potency of a common though no less relevant piece of wisdom: that the most basic aspects of life bear its most important opportunities. Here Fulghum engages us with musings on life, death, love, pain, joy, sorrow, and the best chicken-fried steak in the continental United States. The little seed in the Styrofoam cup offers a reminder about our own mortality and the delicate nature of life . . . a spider who catches (and loses) a full-grown woman in its web one fine morning teaches us about surviving catastrophe . . . the love story of Jean-Francois Pilatre and his hot-air balloon reminds us to be brave and unafraid to “fly” . . . life lessons hidden in the laundry pile . . . magical qualities found in a box of crayons . . . hide-and-seek vs. sardines—and how these games relate to the nature of God. All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten is brimming with the very stuff of life and the significance found in the smallest details. In the editions since the first publication of this book, Robert Fulghum has had some time to ponder, to reevaluate, and to reconsider, adding fresh thoughts on classic topics including a short new introduction. Praise for All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten “A healthy antidote to the horrors that pummel us in this dicey age.”—Baltimore Sun “Within simplicity lies the sublime.”—San Francisco Chronicle “It is interesting how much of it applies not only to individuals, grown or small, but even to nations.”—New York Daily News “As universal as fresh air and invigorating as the fragrance of a Douglas fir.”—Los Angeles Times
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 in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned: 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. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
Fulghum ... shares with readers the words and wisdom of others that have guided and inspired him throughout his life and on which he drew when writing his international bestsellers."--Jacket.
A book to raise the spirits and warm the heart. Includes the famous Kindergarten essay that was read on the floor of the U.S. Senate.From the Hardcover edition.
A book to raise the spirits and warm the heart. Includes the famous Kindergarten essay that was read on the floor of the U.S. Senate.From the Hardcover edition.
Written over a period of ten years, Third Wish is an epic novel that is above all - a love story - not in the usual sense, but the story of people who love life and go to great lengths to live it in a flourishing way. In fairy tales, the third wish is the last one left when the first wish was foolish, and the second wish was used to undo the first. Now the remaining wish must be used wisely and well - with the help of co-conspirators. The story threads its way through Greece, Japan, France, England, Spain and Seattle. Woven into the fabric is cultural history, art, philosophy, archeology, poetry, theater and music. The mode of the novel is contained in these three words: SLOWLY, SURPRISE, WITNESS. The two-volume set is divided into five parts and includes over 150 illustrations by three accomplished artists.
Forgiving, Forgetting, and Moving On delineates therapeutic pathways to conflict resolution. The author highlights how conflict develops out of personality configurations, describes paths to resolving conflicts therapeutically, and explains how conflict that could create dysphoric affects can be more comfortably accommodated into one's personality structure.
This book consolidates the common sense philosophy for the average person. This book documents how I think. It includes my views and opinions on things and events that I have experienced throughout life. You may agree or disagree with my views and opinions. That's okay. My objective has been to give you something to think about, particularly if you disagree with me. Maybe it will motivate you to document your own philosophy and prepare a similar book. Over the past 43 years of my educational pursuits, employment, business dealings, community service activities, religious activities, and marriage and family life, I have thought deeply about these areas of focus. As I dreamed, conceptualized, and mentally created original thoughts, I wrote them down in diaries/journals, notebooks, papers, and other documents. This book is a consolidation of all of these thoughts. It is my, an average man's, philosophy of life. I share this philosophy with you.
“Uh-oh” embraces “Here we go again” and “Now What?” and “You never can tell what’s going to happen next” and “So much for plan A” and “Hang on, we’re coming to a tunnel” and “No sweat” and “Tomorrow’s another day” and “You can’t unscramble an egg” and “A hundred years from now it won’t make any difference.” “Uh-oh” is more than a momentary reaction to small problems. “Uh-oh” is an attitude—a perspective on the universe. It is a power of an equation that summarizes my view of the conditions of existence: “Uh-huh” + “oh-wow” + “uh-oh” + “oh, God” = “ah-hah!”
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