something to think about

Birgitt Bolton birgitt at worldchat.com
Sat Apr 5 07:28:48 PST 1997


Barry, your something to think about does that. My thoughts took me to one
of my favorite quotes
"Nature does not demand that we be perfect; it only requires that we grow."
Josh Liebman

And one of my favorite excerpts, from the Velveteen Rabbit
"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when he and the skin horse were
lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the
room. " Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out
handle?" "Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing
that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just
to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful."When you are
Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by
bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes
a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily,
or have sharp edges, or who have been carefully kept. Generally, by the
time you are REAL, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop
out and you get loose in the joints, and very shabby. But these things
don't matter at all, because once you are real you can't be ugly, except to
people who don't understand.

So, it you've never read the book, it is a great one to have. Written by
Margery Williams, often found in the children's section, although I don't
know why.

Birgitt




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