| General Fiction posted August 21, 2022 |
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The simple life rules
Madame Kindergarten Teacher
by Rachelle Allen
If I Were in Charge of the World Contest Winner
I'm no newbie to this situation called "Life." I'm old (well, "middle-aged" if I live to be 132...), and I've known a vast array of people in wildly different settings. But I'm convinced that what binds us all is that, deep down, we long to be Kindergarteners again. Because, let's be honest, life was so fundamentally good back then!
If I were in charge of the world, I would be the nicest Kindergarten teacher-ruler who ever lived, and we'd all have our best lives back.
I'd start by reminding the populous --my "constituents," if you will-- the importance of "warm fuzzies" --words that feel good-- when talking to others rather than "cold pricklies" --words that hurt. I'd explain that we're a team, which means that we have the same goal and can only accomplish it if we work together kindly at all times.
Next, I'd arrange it so that every day, each person would receive five slips of paper entitled, "I Noticed Something You Did Today That I Thought Was Great!" In order to get ice cream that night with dinner, a citizen would have to fill each one out (in their best penmanship, of course) and distribute them to five different people.
At dinner, the citizenry would read aloud the papers that had been bestowed, while everyone around them listened with rapt fascination. If anyone didn't receive a paper, he or she could learn, from listening to the others' papers, what had been done to garner such praise, and it would inspire them to do something similar the next day.
But, even if you didn't receive any papers, yourself, on any given day, as long as you gave away your own five slips, you would still get ice cream. Plus, with the new day, you could start making choices about how to improve someone else's life.
"This won't work!" I can hear the shards of scorn being pelted toward my platform already. "It's too SIMPLISTIC!"
Fair enough, I guess, and guilty as charged. But, actually, that's exactly the point. Because, what's easier than simply being nice?
When you spend time deliberating about how to be kinder to others while noticing what they're doing that's nice, you --very easily-- form your own solid foundation of kindness and joy. And when everyone does this, then we have an entire global community of rock-solid goodness.
If you proceed to top that off with the power of the written word every day (there's a reason we FanStorians love receiving great reviews, I'm thinking, right?), then that decorates the walls of your foundation and enhances their simple beauty even more.
There's nothing hard about it. It's as easy as all of us paying attention to what's close by. (and I don't mean our cell phones!) If you see someone struggling, step up and help. Easy! If someone took the time to look nice that day, speak up! Simple! If you see someone with a beautiful smile, say so! That's not hard; it's as easy as life gets. And it forms a beautiful link with a new person.
If someone says something rude, simply nod and offer, "I hear you" as opposed to, "Oh yeah? Well, go bleep your bleeping bleep!" They were angry when they spoke and needed to be heard. That happens to us all. But rather than exacerbating their aggravation, there you'll be with your affirming comment to help them through it. And what did doing that take away from you? Not. One. Thing.
In fact, if my Five Slips of Paper rule were in place, I know, without a doubt that someone who saw what you did, would bestow one of their five daily notes upon you at once. And you'd feel so good, you'd probably do it again should the situation ever recur. Plus, you'd have taught any people who witnessed it a better way to handle a similar, potentially lousy, moment, too.
It requires no education, no experience, no nothing but a SIMPLE act of kindness.
So, please let me rule the world. We'll live our best lives --like Kindergarteners-- infused with warm fuzzies every day...and then we'll get ice cream with dinner.
I'm no newbie to this situation called "Life." I'm old (well, "middle-aged" if I live to be 132...), and I've known a vast array of people in wildly different settings. But I'm convinced that what binds us all is that, deep down, we long to be Kindergarteners again. Because, let's be honest, life was so fundamentally good back then!
If I were in charge of the world, I would be the nicest Kindergarten teacher-ruler who ever lived, and we'd all have our best lives back.
I'd start by reminding the populous --my "constituents," if you will-- the importance of "warm fuzzies" --words that feel good-- when talking to others rather than "cold pricklies" --words that hurt. I'd explain that we're a team, which means that we have the same goal and can only accomplish it if we work together kindly at all times.
Next, I'd arrange it so that every day, each person would receive five slips of paper entitled, "I Noticed Something You Did Today That I Thought Was Great!" In order to get ice cream that night with dinner, a citizen would have to fill each one out (in their best penmanship, of course) and distribute them to five different people.
At dinner, the citizenry would read aloud the papers that had been bestowed, while everyone around them listened with rapt fascination. If anyone didn't receive a paper, he or she could learn, from listening to the others' papers, what had been done to garner such praise, and it would inspire them to do something similar the next day.
But, even if you didn't receive any papers, yourself, on any given day, as long as you gave away your own five slips, you would still get ice cream. Plus, with the new day, you could start making choices about how to improve someone else's life.
"This won't work!" I can hear the shards of scorn being pelted toward my platform already. "It's too SIMPLISTIC!"
Fair enough, I guess, and guilty as charged. But, actually, that's exactly the point. Because, what's easier than simply being nice?
When you spend time deliberating about how to be kinder to others while noticing what they're doing that's nice, you --very easily-- form your own solid foundation of kindness and joy. And when everyone does this, then we have an entire global community of rock-solid goodness.
If you proceed to top that off with the power of the written word every day (there's a reason we FanStorians love receiving great reviews, I'm thinking, right?), then that decorates the walls of your foundation and enhances their simple beauty even more.
There's nothing hard about it. It's as easy as all of us paying attention to what's close by. (and I don't mean our cell phones!) If you see someone struggling, step up and help. Easy! If someone took the time to look nice that day, speak up! Simple! If you see someone with a beautiful smile, say so! That's not hard; it's as easy as life gets. And it forms a beautiful link with a new person.
If someone says something rude, simply nod and offer, "I hear you" as opposed to, "Oh yeah? Well, go bleep your bleeping bleep!" They were angry when they spoke and needed to be heard. That happens to us all. But rather than exacerbating their aggravation, there you'll be with your affirming comment to help them through it. And what did doing that take away from you? Not. One. Thing.
In fact, if my Five Slips of Paper rule were in place, I know, without a doubt that someone who saw what you did, would bestow one of their five daily notes upon you at once. And you'd feel so good, you'd probably do it again should the situation ever recur. Plus, you'd have taught any people who witnessed it a better way to handle a similar, potentially lousy, moment, too.
It requires no education, no experience, no nothing but a SIMPLE act of kindness.
So, please let me rule the world. We'll live our best lives --like Kindergarteners-- infused with warm fuzzies every day...and then we'll get ice cream with dinner.
If I Were in Charge of the World Contest Winner |
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