We
live in a world in which weapons of mass destruction are continually
being created, upgraded, and made more powerful. What if we
worked on making weapons of mass awesomeness?
Rather
than focus on negativity, harm, and so-called power, we could invent
ongoing gifts of goodness and happiness. I’m thinking we
could create a giant club — worldwide — and share fun,
joyful ideas and activities. What a beautiful thought, right?
Stay with me. This is a concept we can actually build upon.
Robert
Fulghum, who gained fame writing the book All
I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,
shared a great idea that I’ve included in presentations from
time to time. People love it. (Thanks, Reverend Fulghum.)
So I thought I’d
share it with you, and maybe you can participate, even though we’re
not all in a classroom together. This is what he suggests:
“Maybe
we should develop a Crayola crayon bomb as our next secret weapon. A
happiness weapon. A beauty bomb.
“And
every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode
high in the air, softly, and send thousands, millions, of little
parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth — boxes of
Crayolas. And we wouldn’t go cheap, either — not little
boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right
in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime,
amber and umber and all the rest.
“And
people would smile and get a little funny look on their face and
cover the world with imagination.”
Doesn’t
that sound heavenly? And awesome — in its best use of the word,
meaning: phenomenal, fantastic, wonderful and awe-inspiring.
Imagine
living on a street where we could see Crayola boxes coming down from
the sky, and everyone came outside to share pictures they’d
drawn from the last time the crayons descended. Or chalk — so
that we could draw happy pictures on the driveways and street.
Or,
imagine that, instead of developing
such a secret weapon, we determined to be the
secret weapon.
With
all the gentleness and joy of a box of sixty four crayons and a heart
full of optimism, we could offer imaginative and do-able ways to get
through a hard day or know just the right things to say (and offered
with a hug) to a family member or other loved one who is feeling
down.
What
if we asked our Father in Heaven to bless us to be true instruments
of His peace? What if we chose to ingest President Gordon B.
Hinckley’s counsel to:
“Cultivate
an attitude of happiness. Cultivate a spirit of optimism.
“Walk
with faith, rejoicing in the beauties of nature, in the goodness of
those you love, in the testimony which you carry in your heart
concerning things divine.”
Taking
the Crayola Crayon Weapon challenge symbolically, we could color this
world in beautiful shades of kindness, civility, and goodness.
More
important than our looks, our clothing, our so-called status,
education, or circumstances, we could give up our weapons of war: you
know — the harsh words, the backbiting, the whining and
finger-pointing. The things that tear down and destroy.
Instead,
we could dig into our box of colors and be the kind of disciple of
Christ that — when all is said and done — we really want
to be. This, my friends, would be awesome, wouldn’t it?
Pass
the crayons. Let’s build a little more goodness!
Vickey Pahnke Taylor is a wife, mom, grandmother, teacher, author, and songwriter. Her
undergraduate study at BYU was musical theater. She has a Masters degree in interpersonal
communications.
A Billboard award-winning songwriter with hundreds of songs to her credit, she uses music as a
teaching tool. But her favorite way to use music has been to sing to her children. You should
hear the family's rousing versions of "Happy Birthday"!
In addition to three solo albums in the LDS market, she co-wrote "Women at the Well" with
Kenneth Cope and "My Beloved Christ: with Randy Kartchner. She is co-writer of the theme
song for Utah's Make-A-Wish foundation, the song for the Special Olympics program, and
EFY's theme song.
She writes for several online magazines and columns, and has authored several books. Her
website, www.goodnessmatters.com, is her way of continuing to grow goodness in the world,
pointing people gently toward Christ and eternal principles of truth.
She has spoken for the Church's various Youth and Family programs for 25 years. She and her
husband Dean have eight children and four grandchildren. She adores being a wife, mom and
grandmother. She loves flowers, brownies, cooking Italian and Southern foods, the ocean, and
laughing every chance she gets.
Vickey was baptized a member of the Church as a teenager in Virginia. She serves as gospel
doctrine teacher in her ward, and Dean serves on their stake high council.
