Two Children's Books That Could Rock the World

    Once in awhile, while reading a picture book to a young child, something profound happens. It happens unexpectedly like it did to me the day I was reading a book by Carol McCloud called; Have you Filled a Bucket Today? My four-year old grand daughter was snuggled up close to me on the couch as we opened the book to the first page. We read the words, looked at the illustrations and as we came to the end of the story, I felt my heart rate quicken. My soul seemed to elevate and my eyes opened in wonder. Hope soared within me as I realized the truth of this story. An unexpected pearl was hidden in the shell of a thirty one page book with illustrations and few words on each page. We had just uncovered a truth of wisdom that could encompass every individual in the human race from babies to octogenarians.

    My grand daughter caught the vision too. After we read the last page, with a happy face she proclaimed, "Grandma, we just filled each other's buckets!" I responded just as happily, "Yes we did, honey." She went on excitedly listing all the people and things whose buckets she would fill like her dolls, the dog, her family and friends. She grasped the concept immediately. At this point you are probably wondering what the concept is so I will tell you. It seems, as Carol McCloud would explain, that every person on the planet has an invisible bucket they carry around with them all the time. This bucket holds our good thoughts and feelings about ourselves. We can make the choice to be a person who is a bucket-filler or a person who is a bucket-dipper. The best thing about the bucket is that when you fill up other people's buckets, you actually fill up your own bucket at the same time. This concept holds true in reverse; when you dip into someone else's bucket, you also lose some of what is in your own bucket.

    So you might ask, "How can I become a bucket-filler and avoid becoming a bucket-dipper? The good news is that you already are a bucket-filler! Every time you treat someone the same way you would like to be treated, you are filling a bucket. The bad news is that every time you don't treat someone kindly you become a bucket-dipper. Of course, you can fill your own bucket by continually developing your own character which includes honesty, integrity, patience and seeking to help others. On the other hand, if self satisfaction, anger, impatience and intolerance invade your personality, you will not only be a bucket-dipper but your own bucket will be quite empty.

    The second book I think could rock the world, The Flower Man by Mark Ludy, coincidently illustrates the bucket-filler, bucket dipper concept beautifully; even without words! The picture book with mostly cartoon-type black and white illustrations pictures an elderly man entering a dark village where all the inhabitants are wearing various troubled faces. He stops at an abandoned house for sale and begins to make it his home by cutting the lawn, painting the house and putting up new shutters. A curious little girl watches as he plants flowers. In the next scene, the reader sees a little girl, colorfully dressed, holding a flower with a smile on her face skipping down the street. When next you see her, she is hugging a sad old man holding the flower she gave him. It's a great illustration of how the simplest of kindnesses can change someone's day and make the world a better place. The old gentleman made a practice of filling other's buckets and in turn those people filled more people's buckets. By the end of the story, the once dark and dismal town is painted in full color. Let's heed the principles of these two children's books, let them rock the world as we continue what the flower man began one person at a time.

    I'd like to conclude with this quote from Katherine Mansfield the famous short story author popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.