The "Being Youer Than You" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Putting the lighted deer away until next Christmas.  You know, the deer that always have a few lights that won't light and when you go to get more you can't find a strand with white wire or you can only find a strand with 250 lights on it when you only need 50.  Oh the joys of Christmas decorating.  Well, we put our artificial tree and deer in the loft above our garage.  Have to climb the steep stairs while navigating the deer so they don't knock down the insulation in the ceiling.  Just as I put the last of the five deer in place in the storage area I noticed a box marked children's books.  Found an extra cardboard box to sit upon and opened the box.  Wow, brought back memories so it did!  Something like Clark Griswold discovering in his ceiling crawl-space the black and white movie reels from when he was a child.  Of course my find was much more exciting, at least to me.  On top of the box was a book I must have read 100 times or more during the childhood days of our three children.  Luckily the book was only 32 pages, but one that even I enjoyed reading over and over.  Written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd in 1947, "Goodnight Moon" was a fantastic bedtime story.  About a child saying goodnight to everything around.  If you ever read it you have to remember ...... "Goodnight room, Goodnight moon,  Goodnight cow jumping over the moon.  Goodnight light, and the red balloon ...." and on and on.  

Dr. Seuss

Then I dug into the box once again and pulled out a few of our kid's favorite Dr. Seuss' books.  Books such as "Green Eggs and Ham," "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish," The Cat in the Hat," and "Hop on Pop."  As I leafed through them I read parts of each and realized all the really neat and inspiring quotes that Dr. Seuss gave to our kids as they were in some of the most influential years of their lives.  Quotes such as: "You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose";  "Today is your day!  Your mountain is waiting so get on your way!"; "Oh, the things you can find if you don't stay behind!"; "Today you are you, that is truer than true.  There is no one alive who is youer than you.";  "The more that you read, the more things you will know.  The more you learn, the more places you'll go.";  "A person's a person, no matter how small."; "Will you succeed?  Yes!  You will, indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)";  "Today was good.  Today was fun.  Tomorrow is another one.";  "If you never did you should.  These things are fun, and fun is good."; "With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street."; and the final one .... "You're on your own.  And you know what you know.  And you are the guy (or gal in my daughter's case) who'll decide where to go."  Pretty deep, but inspiring stuff for children.  Dr. Seuss' name was really Theodor Seuss Geisel and he was born March 2, 1904 which makes him 112 years old; except for the fact that he died September 24, 1991.  

He had several pen names beside Dr. Seuss such as Theo LeSieg, Theo- phrastus Seuss and Rosetta Stone.  His occupation was listed as cartoonist, animator, book publisher, artist as well as writer.  He wrote 48 children's books during his life as well as a few books for adults.  I read a few facts about him that you may find interesting such as ...... He didn't think school and story books written about Jack and Jill were interesting enough and didn't hold a child's attention so he took it upon himself to correct that;  His Butter Battle Book is his most controversial book, since it's about the nuclear arms race;  "I Saw It on Mulberry Street" was rejected by 27 different publishers before he finally had it published;  His mom baked and sold pies and would chant the daily pie charts to him as a kid trying to fall asleep.  This he credits for his sense of rhythm;  The Dr. in Dr. Seuss came from an uncompleted attempt to get a doctorate in philosophy;  His dad always wanted a doctor in the family, so in a way he got one;  Kids made fun of him when he was a child since he was German and WWI had just ended;  Most of his stories were composed entirely of words found on 1st grade spelling lists;  "Green Eggs and Ham occurred out of a $50 bet to write a book with less than 50 words.  His name is pronounced as "soyce"; and to me a most shocking fact, provided it is true, is that he never really liked kids.  I know my kids certainly enjoyed his books, and to tell you the truth, so did I.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.