Dr Seuss

I was thinking of Dr Seuss last night and decided I needed to do a post on him. I remember Dr Seuss books as being some of my first books. This is the man I credit for helping to fuel my love of reading. He taught me great lessons that have endured to my adult life such as "A person's a person, no matter how small".  and "I know, up on top you are seeing great sights, but down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights." Most importantly he taught me "all the turtles are free, as turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be."

 Dr Seuss was there as I wrote my papers in college, reminding me "So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.". It was true, the less wordy I made my papers, the higher the marks.

He let me know that it was ok to enjoy my solitude and encouraged my independence. "All alone! Whether you like it or not, alone is something you'll be quite a lot!" 

The good doctor also helped my love life, when I thought I was too weird to be understood or loved by someone, he told me ""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."

I think some of the most important lessons I learned from Dr Seuss were how to be respondsible for myself,
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."
and how to treat all living things, even those that can not speak. "I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues." You're in charge of the last of the Truffula Seeds. And Truffula Trees are what everyone needs. Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care. Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air.
Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack"

Perhaps the best quote I can remember is:

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter

and those who matter don't mind.”