From Shel Silverstein's Work We Can Learn Some Important Life Lessons To Live Life To The Fullest:
1. Anything can happen, anything can be.
2. Think outside the box, color outside the lines, be different, unique, and original.
3. Listen to your inner voice: When something doesn’t feel right, that’s your guide that you shouldn’t do it. When something feels good, that’s your guide that you should do more of it.
4. Don’t be sad that it is over, be happy that it happened!
“There are no happy endings. Endings are the saddest part. So just give me a happy middle and a very happy start.” ~Shel Silverstein.
5. What motivates one person might demotivate another. So always choose what applies to you and your situation.
6. If you have an idea for a book, movie, song, TV show or any other creative work that you’d like to see done, don’t wait around to see if someone writes it for you, write it yourself!
7. Sometimes thinking isn’t enough, because what you really need to do is believe.
8. You are more than meets the eye because there is still life in you to be lived and some inner part of you can’t be put into words because it is bigger than your physical self.
9. Live your life so that there’s nothing really left when it’s all said and done.
“Talked my head off, Worked my tail off, Cried my eyes out, Walked my feet off, Sang my heart out, So you see, There’s really not much left of me.” ~Shel Silverstein.
10. Just because something hasn’t been done, doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
11. Life is magical, but you’re the magician, and if you don’t perform your tricks it’s not going to perform them for you. Find your magical ability and be sure to put it to use each day.
12. “Many leaves one tree.” ~Shel Silverstein. This reminds us that we all come from one source.
Shel Silverstein's Style/The Context In Which Shel Silverstein Created His Work
He began writing and drawing as a child and explains the beginning of his passion by saying, “I couldn’t play ball; I couldn’t dance. Luckily, the girls didn’t want me; not much I could do about that. So, I started to draw and to write. I was lucky that I didn’t have anyone to copy, be impressed by. I had developed my own style.”
He imagines things the way kids do when they’re little, and it goes away when they’re older- only in this case it doesn’t go away. This appeal to children is perhaps what made Silverstein so influential. He was able to “understand common childhood thoughts and anxieties,” and he shared a mutual respect for them. Happy endings, magic solutions in children’s books create alienation in the child who reads them. Always giving children simple and unrealistic outcomes, and not ever dealing with the harsher realities of life, might shortchange a young person and not fully prepare them for adult life.