Good morning everyone,
I hope everyone has been staying warm through out this crazy winter weeks. This week is one of my favorite weeks in the entire year. Dr. Seuss week happens this week and it promotes National Read Across America week.
Dr. Seuss's birthday is celebrated on March 2nd and it celebrates both the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel and the National Education Association to endorse the importance of reading. National Read Across America day/week happens this week in all schools across America. Students read the books that were written by him and hear the lessons that they provide by also dressing up in fun and wacky ways. Dr. Seuss is probably best known for his books to help children learn to read, such as One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Green Eggs and Ham, and Hop on Pop, his cautionary tales including The Lorax, and the inspirational Oh, the Places You'll Go! A lesser-known fact about Dr. Seuss is that he created the word nerd.
The reason why Dr. Seuss week is so important to me is because, his book the Lorax saved my life. A few years back I was going through the hardest time in my life. Everything was crashing around me and I didn’t see a way out. I was working at a camp at the time and needed to talk to my boss about something important. Crying in her office, she sat me down and loved me and encouraged me with not only words from her heart, but one single word. UNLESS!!! I had asked her several times before why she had the word all over her office and tattooed on her wrist. She told me it was from the Lorax by Dr. Seuss. Little did I know how much it would not only save my life but, change it for the better.
If you are not familiar with the book I encourage you to go read it. The Lorax is a cautionary tale primarily about a person's responsibilities to the environment. The Once-ler comes in and takes all of the truffla trees and destroys the environment for his own selfish profit. The Lorax comes in and tells him to stop and that he advocates for the trees. Ignoring the advice of the Lorax, the greed blinds the Once-ler and he destroys the forest causing everything that was once beautiful to be destroyed. At the end of the book the Lorax gives a single truffla tree seed to the Once-ler and says his famous line. “ Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot; nothing is going to get better it’s not”. Those words are left to encourage the Once-ler to care about what happened and make a change. My boss read this book to us during our staff training and explained it this way.
The world is like the Once-ler. It comes at us telling us all kinds of things that destroy us personal. “You need to look like this,” or “you can’t do that”. Whatever or whoever is dragging you down in your life is like the Once-ler. Now the truffla trees were the campers, growing and trying to thrive in their element and we were the Lorax. We were there to encourage those kids no matter what they had going on in there lives. Help them grow to be the amazing people that they wanted to be. Not be a Once-ler by dragging them down and destroy them like so many of them already had in their lives. My boss said with pride, “ I am your Lorax and you are my truffla trees. I am here to help you grow and be the best versions of yourself so you can become a Lorax in your campers life or anyone else”. She gave us seeds just like the Lorax did that summer to remind us about the power of unless. Unless I care, it’s not going to get better in any situation. I have to care to make that positive change in my own life, my families, my work, in nature, in everything!! Because my boss became my Unless, I was able to heal and become a better version of myself and a Lorax in so many peoples lives. I do my best everyday to be a Unless in someones life wether they know me or not. I still have that seed and it sits in the hands of a little Lorax that sits on my desk in my office.
Dr. Seuss in so many of his books teaches so many amazing lessons. So many are about equality or reaching for your dreams. He’s words are such a powerful tool to not only encourage us to read and use our imagination, but to grow as individuals and open our eyes to whats going on around us.
I wanted to encourage you to have a fun and wacky week this week. Read his books as a family and talk about the amazing lessons that can be applied in your lives. Make sure you also have so fun this week. Do wacky things like cook green eggs and ham or wear silly cloths. Be someones unless and encourage them. You never know how it will effect their life. This week is such a fun week celebrating the the man who encouraged us to grow and read more. Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss and thank you Kim(my boss) for teaching me about Unless and being that for me even still.
Tiffany
Program Supervisor
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot; nothing is going to get better it’s not”