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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (May 3, 1990)
Alpine Continued from Page U Aside from things like planets and the universe, we, as a single global populace, made up the world in which we function. I enjoy sit ting around staring at my ceiling and thinking that for roughly 10,000 years the human species has end lessly been playing a vicious game of capture the flag or hide-and-go seek It might even be the “Hokey Pokey.” The world may never know. This knowledge is one of my favorite tools that I picked up trav eling. It makes matters seem far less serious. One of the problems we have hereon the planet is that of people taking life too seriously, taking themselves too seriously. This is a quote from a number of different thinkers sharing each other’s ideas: “Life is too important to be taken seriously.” * ♦ • I keep no one story retaining this tool alone, I do what I can to work it into the underlying themes category in any story I write. Some get closer than others, this is the way things work out. The idea here is that if it doesn’t work quite right I can throw it away and create a new story from a few of the same and a few different tools and materials I keep around in my head. Many times 1 get these tools from books but sometimes I need to run to the hardware store, w hich might be someplace like San Paulo, Brazil, Bangkok, Thailand, or Wahoo, Neb. You’d be amazed at the things you can learn from people in VC’ahoo. They’ll tell you everything they know if you give them an hour, but Bangkok is help ful, too. I came across a humble piece of work by Robert Fulghum. 1 his is all 1 know about this man, what you read here, and l think it supports, in essence, w hat I'm writing about, so I’ll share it with you. AII / rp/illv vippflpd to know about how to live and what to do and how to be l learned in kindergarten. W isdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain but there in the sandf)iie Sunday School These are the things l learned Share everything. Playfair. IXm't hit people. Put things back where you found them Clean uf) your own mess. Don’t take things that an m't yours. Say you ‘re sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat Plush. Warm cookies and milk are good for you. l ive a balanced life — learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and work every day some Take a naf) every afternoon When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Stryofoam cup The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Stryofoam cuf) - they all die So do we And then remember the Dick and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK. Everything you need is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living. Take any one of these items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and af)ply it to your family life or your work life or your govern ment or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think of what a belter world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk around3 every afternoon and then lay with our blankets for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always /ml things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess. And it still is true, no matter how old you are — when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick to gether -- Robert Fulghum “Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things” So there it is, then. I’ll be. I feel like I never should have left that first kindergarten experience more than 20 years ago. Things change, however, and I am willing to accept change as an inherent consistency in the uni verse. As humans, whether we like it or not, we are not forever the static masters of the universe. We still are not totally sure, for that matter, about our own solar system, further, our own solitary planet and moon. I’ve thought often about why we place so much significance on ourselves, I suppose it’s our big brain keeping us from getting lonely so we create these things to keep ourselves busy. We are freaks of the evolutionary process, and as mutants I’d expect great things but we’ve shown very little progress in the spiritual realm in the last 10,000 years. And inasmuch as people sometimes like to think oi them selves as biological and other times as spiritual dependi ng on wha tever suits their argument at the time — until we can annihilate monetary’ fjreed, fear of culture and the vio ence stemming from the root of that fear from the confines of our society here on the third planet from the sun — then we exist for ever as nothing more than domes ticated and lingual dogs and cats who can never reach some com mon understanding with the mice they live with. Which would be understand able if it weren’t for the ultimate joke which is this: We are a race with just enough brain power to conceive grand ideas, but still are far too primal to carry them out of our brains and make real aestheti cally and socially pleasing crea tions. Evolution, my friends, is not finished with us. Hut 1 think we resist evolution because most of us are too busy watching football, baseball, basketball or “America’s Most Wanted.” These things, by nature, hold limited and tribal no tions. The arena-field of the very near future is mental! We are on the verge of expanding into entirely new and awe-inspiring, other worldly realms right here in this world, and I think it would be best if we worked all this out before we fiddle with ideas that we are not real sure of, yet. Nuclear energy is one idea made real that now haunts us with endless barrels of toxic waste. Can we simply continue to stack it on top of each other for all civilization? “Let the next generation worry about it. We made it uo. Let them figure out how to clean up after themselves or live without it,” one politically coaservative person might mumble to themselves while they avoid the issue at hand. It is crucial, in my playground opinion, to attain this child’s mind way of thought — a mature child, rather than this undeniably selfish immature adult we’ve created as a social norm. School is part of it, dance and music and comedy and sculpture, painting, design, and yes, science and technology. Life, our lives here on the planet, must become indi vidual works of art to survive, prosper and evolve. And in this age where tele-media makes the world smaller every day, as does the growing population, manipulation of the masses moves to a mental rather than physical game. It is by far and large worse, of course, to destroy one mentally and leave them living than it is to kill them. I guess what I’m saying is that the world take a week or 50 off of politics and economics and con centrate solely on getting to know one another in a friendly and cele bration-like fashion. I think the world should take time out for a milk and cookies break and a lei surely game of tag. It’s easy. I’ll even start. Tag! \%] You re it. *—^ Cowan is a senior philosophy and Eng lish major and a Daily Ncbrskan diver sions columnist. r SPRING SALE $3.50 $7.50 CASSETTES CD’S I BOSTON 7^1 !f*| BILLY JOEL (Mt) DON T LOOK BACK » ^ THE STRANGER ^—/ including Ju&l The Way You Are Scene* From An Italian Restaurant Movtn Out (Anthony % Song) Only The Good Die Young/Vienna ^_r - J ’ THE BYRDS GREATEST HITS <•» INCLUDING r" r MR TAMBOURIN? MAN > TURN* TURN' TURN* JTU (ICHT MIUS HIGH Vn SO VOU WANT TO Bl R | A R CK N noil sun 'J., MV BACR RAGIS JL Psff, .. *~S8B$F! \9SSf Thousands of titles, hundreds of artists I
