All I need to know about life...

All I Need to Know...
By Matthew Q. Llewellyn, NREMT-I
Founder, The American Libertarian Movement

If you haven't read the book "All I Need To Know About Life, I learned in Kindergarten", you no longer need to. Why? Because I'm about to explain it in what I hope will make the time you are taking to read this well spent.

They say children become teens, teens become adults and at some point, adult become children again... sort of. It's believed the early teachings of life, in particular, the ones up to age 7, are what we, as adults, will eventually revert back to as we progress in life. I think many of us have forgotten some of the most valuable lessons we learned at that age.

Play fair:

How often in life do we play fair? Sometimes? Always? Never? Is life itself fair? Many times in life I've heard people say "Why should I? Life isn't fair. Why should I be?". Thomas Babington Macauley said "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out." Many variations of this have spread, such as this one by J.C. Watts, who said "Character is doing what is right when no one is looking."

I think another childhood lesson that applies very well here is, "If everyone else jumps off a bridge are you going to do it too?"

Just because the world is unfair, whether that be directly through people intentionally causing wrong, or be it the world just not working out in our favor, doesn't mean we have to be. Throughout history, great men became great men, and became remembered, because they chose to be the few. Sure, there are some very evil people who the world will never forget, but for the most part, we remember great people, people who did the right thing, people who, despite the evil and wrong around them, chose to take the higher and less traveled road.

As we go through our lives we are going to face many challenges, some easier than others, but all of them challenging. We will repeatedly have to decide whether we will play fair or whether we will not. Rather than offer a clever saying, I choose to offer a question... Will you be remembered as a great man or woman who's resolve and moral compass could not be shattered? Or will you be remembered as one who swayed with the direction of the wind?

Don't hit people:

One would think this is a very simple theory, but I promise you, it's not. I think the greatest example of this is generally in men. Men fight for the most idiotic reasons I can possibly think of. I've seen men throw punches because someone said something of them that they didn't necessarily care for. Why? What is the point? What are you trying to prove? The only thing that is accomplished by physically attacking someone is proving to the rest of the world that you are not worthy of trust or responsibility. In this modern time, and throughout time really, people have fought for such material reasons.

What are some common, but very misplaced reasons for fighting? Here's a few I've seen over the years.

Someone "talked smack" about you.
Someone spoke ill of your significant other.
Someone "dissed" you or someone you know.
Someone was born on a different street and therefore unworthy of life (gang violence).
Someone (goes with the above) put on the wrong color of clothing.
Someone "disrespected" you.
Someone looked at you wrong. (not even sure how that one works)

Has starting a physical fight ever solved any of these problems?

Think about another constant of the universe... retaliation. Fighting for material reasons solves nothing. If you happen to win, the person you beat will generally plots a revenge strike against you. Invariably, you will later plot another strike against them. Eventually, one of you will end up dead. Does it always go to that extreme? No... But does it commonly? Yes.

If you are going to fight... fight for something that is worth dying for.

Life... Family... Liberty... Country.

Defending your own life or another from a direct physical attack on their life... defending your freedom or the freedom of another... defending your country... these things are worth fighting, and if necessary, dying for. Beyond that... the fist is only a road to destruction... be it the destruction and loss of your life... or the destruction of your character... fighting for unjust reasons is never an acceptable answer.

Put things back where you found them:

This goes beyond simply putting something back... this is an act which creates great self-responsibility and accountability. If you always grab things and then just toss them to the side, you never develop that natural tendency to have order. Without order, you can't succeed in life.

Margaret Mead said, "Human nature is potentially aggressive and destructive or potentially orderly and constructive." (aggression and destruction leading back to the last lesson of not hitting) To achieve success, we must be constructive, to be constructive we must be organized, to do this, we must be orderly people.

Try this in your own life. Simply put things back where they go... no matter where you are. I promise you, this act of being more orderly will not only lead to a more organize home and work, but also a calmer life. Why calm? Because... without order, comes calamity.

Pick up your own mess:

This is a hard lesson that I believe everyone in life has to learn at one point or another, and we, as adults, although we generally pick up after ourselves, we don't generally clean up our messes. Many people cause many problems, without regard to the lives of others, and expect others to clean up those messes. We see this frequently in government... well... wrongfully directed government.

The founding fathers of the United States believed in absolute freedom of the individual, so long as that freedom did not pose direct physical threat to the civil liberties of others. With this freedom, they also believed in personal accountability and responsibility. They believed that men are not only accountable to themselves, but responsible for themselves.

If the founding fathers came back today, or could see today and were then asked to take an interview concerning it, what do you think they would say of the way many people choose to live their lives? We live in a world where people have lost sight of accountability. Many people choose to never learn from their mistakes, and while continuing to make those mistakes, they expect the government to take care of them in any and every way imaginable.

While I have no real issue with people temporarily receiving some help, because let's face it, we all need some help when we're down, I do expect people to eventually start grabbing the rungs of the ladder and pulling themselves up. I know it's not easy... I know beyond not being easy, that it's not just difficult, but sometimes incredibly difficult. If anyone in the world knows this, I assure you, being a man who dropped out of school after the 8th grade, I know all about pulling yourself up from a world of nothing... a world which your own poor choices created.

You know... I stress on this a lot... this whole individual responsibility thing... but why do I stress on it so often? Is it because I don't like helping others? No... it's because I LOVE helping others. There are people out there, most of them, well, probably all of them, in office, who love nothing more than to continue to "clean up your mess" by enabling you to remain in what should have been a very temporary set back in life. But then there are people like me... you hear of me at times. They call me, and those who think like me, racist, sexist, bigots, etc and so on... because we want to find a way to get you off of government programs and onto your own two feet. Why? Because we don't want to help you... No... again... because we would love nothing more than to see you climb up your ladder and become the greatest success you can possibly become. We don't want to give you a little bit of money every month, we want to give you the ability to seize the entire world if you want it. We won't want to going to the bank to cash your government check, we want you to go to the bank in your new car to sign the papers on your new home. We don't want you to stay at the bottom... we want you to take advantage of this land of the free and home of the brave, and make something of yourself. We want you to use every talent and gift God has given you and not only make yourself proud, but if you have children, to inspire them to become all they can be as well.

Friends... we don't want you to clean up your own mess because we don't want to help you... we want you to learn how to climb the ladder on your own so you never have to live in fear of not being able to do it on your own when the time comes.

Don't take things that aren't yours:

This is pretty much a no-brainer folks...

Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody:

Do we say we're sorry when we hurt somebody? Not often. Why not? For the most part... our egos. We just have to be right. No matter how wrong we are, we, for some reason, have this need to be right. Peter T. Mcintyre said, "Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong."

There's nothing wrong, with being wrong. Every time you are wrong, you are confronted with the opportunity to become right. Why? Because you can choose to do the right thing... learn... and admit you were wrong.

Not saying you're sorry when you hurt someone, if you sit back and think about it, has probably caused the end of many relationships and friendships in your life. You knew you were wrong, the person you hurt knew you were wrong, but because you refused to admit it, it caused a wall to grow between you and that person. Saying you're sorry... making that admission... it's a matter of trust. It tells the other person, whether it's a boss, co-worker, friend or lover, that in the future, if you make a mistake, not only will you learn from it, but you will make the proper amends for it.

Remember the character quote? It doesn't just apply to doing what is right when no one can see you, but doing what is right when the entire world is watching. Easy right? Well... not necessarily. When the world is watching, and the right thing means admitting you were wrong, it becomes much more difficult. Your ego begins to play a huge role and makes you fear being wrong. Many people, because of this, will stand by what they did and find ways to justify it, because they would rather engage into a battle of words than allow their ego to take a blow.

I couldn't find a quote to fit right here so I'm just going to have to make one... so here goes...

"Mistakes are a fundamental element of life. Refusing to admit and learn from them is a fundamental element of death."

Wash your hands before you eat:

Not only is this a no-brainer.... (keep reading)

Flush:

... but so is this.

Warm cookies and milk are good for you:

Okay... I just called Santa and he confirmed this. He wanted to add, and I quote, "Hot cocoa and a warm bowl of macaroni and cheese are also acceptable items to leave by the fire place. And to the kid who keeps leaving me imitation health milk and fat free fruit bars instead of cookies and milk... you're getting coal this year." Wow... wouldn't want to be that kid... Enough of the humor, let's move forward.

Live a balanced life - Live some and think some, and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some:

I think the writer was pretty clear about this... lighten up... laugh... enjoy the world. This world, and all the beauty it offers, also includes with it many dark times full of sadness. Along with it, are many difficulties which can only be defeated with wisdom... wisdom that sometimes takes many years to learn.

In each and every opportunity you have, sit back, or stand up, or run, or do a cart wheel... Just have fun. Life, while it may seem long, is very short. Make sure you spend more time laughing and smiling than you do straight faced and serious.

Take a nap every afternoon:

You know... the older we get, the most important this becomes. I can not stress enough the importance of this... I really can't.

When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

This concludes our lesson... making it last... but it's definitely not the least.

When you go into the world, watch out for all the arrows life is throwing at you. When those dark times in life come your way, and you're afraid you might get lost, hold the hand of the person next to you. You may still get lost, but you won't arrive there alone. And when it seems like the wind blowing against you is too strong to stand your ground, make yourself a bigger object in the wind by standing united with the people around you. No force in life, no matter have great, has ever been strong enough to destroy the resolve of a united people.

I think that's all for tonight folks... Remember these simple lessons in life... and have fun. I bid you good day.