Dr. Seuss is one of my favorite authors of all time. Can anyone else say so much in so few words,
and make it rhyme? He truly is a geniuss. All the answers to life's questions can be found in the words of Dr. Seuss. He said it best.
"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."
Sometimes the good doctor's advice comes in the form of nonsense.
"When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle's on a poodle and the poodle's eating noodles...they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle bottle paddle battle." Nonsense? Or Shakespeare? You decide. Dr Seuss would tell you,
"I like nonsense. It wakes up the brain cells." If you don't believe him, go back and read about the beetles in the bottles on the poodle eating noodles. Or remember that the source of the quote said,
"Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope."
And would any great doctor leave humor out of the prescription? Not Dr. Seuss.
"From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere." And just in case you need a mental picture, he also says,
"In my world, everyone's a pony and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies!" Laughing yet? I do every time I hear that line.
He's got quotes for the serious thinkers as well.
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."
And for falling in love:
"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love." He can even tell you whether or not you are in love:
"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams." If you've been in love you know that feeling.
For loss:
"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." Good advice. But if you can't smile,
"I’m glad we had the times together just to laugh and sing a song. Seems like we just got started and then before you know it, the times we had together were gone."
Manners:
"For a host above all must be kind to his guests." But then again we all cheered for Thudwick, the big hearted moose when he set good boundaries and made all those creatures leave! Who knew Dr. Seuss was a therapist too? If there's any doubt, all you need to read is,
"I'm afraid that sometimes you'll play lonely games too. Games you can't win 'cause you'll play against you." Or for the anxious soul:
"If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too." Ahhhh, therapy.
But then again if you've had it with therapy,
"I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!"
Forever a champion for the underdog.
"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive than is Youer than You." And an advocate for friendship:
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."
And there was no question how he felt about children. He reminded us,
"A person's a person no matter how small." Growing up I couldn't stand oatmeal. That didn't stop my mother from trying to convince me my tastebuds were wrong and she was right. I knew for sure Dr. Seuss understood me when I heard the words,
"I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam I Am!" And I took the good doctor's advice even back then and decided I would not
"eat them here or there. I will not eat them anywhere." For me the story stopped there. Sam (I mean mom) never convinced me to
"try them and you'll see." I still can't eat oatmeal.
Happy birthday, Theodore Seuss Geisel. Thanks for all your simple wisdom!
