Column by Rev. Dr. Stewart Rawson: Let us treat each other with love, respect regardless of who we voted for

I don't know about you, but I am weary from the election season. I imagine there are others who feel this way. We are weary from more than a year of attack ads. We are worn down by the tone, the rhetoric, the nastiness. Our country is divided, and we have resorted to calling each other names. This runs counter to everything that my mom and dad taught me when I was growing up.

Where is the civility? Can we get it back? Can we relearn how to treat our neighbors as we want to be treated? I am still relatively new to town; how do you think I would be received if I were rude to everyone I met?

Can we all agree that we are tired and weary and we need to get "back to the basics"? More than 30 years ago, a very thoughtful minister named Robert Fulghum wrote an essay called, "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." I think it is time to get back to the Rev. Fulghum's message. This is what he wrote:

"These are the things I learned:

- Share everything.

- Play fair.

- Don't hit people.

- Put things back where you found them.

- Clean up your own mess.

- Don't take things that aren't yours.

- Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

- Wash your hands before you eat.

- Flush.

- Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

- Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

- Take a nap every afternoon.

- When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.

- Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

- Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.

- And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK."

"Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living."

"Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world, and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. ... And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together." (Robert Fulghum, "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten", 1990)

My hope and prayer for each of us is that we can treat each other with love and respect regardless of what we believe or who we voted for. Let's get back to the basics.

The Rev. Dr. Stewart Rawson is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in downtown Sumter.