Saturday 17 March 2012

Map of the real world


After the post about the Masters of the Universe, I need an antidote to put my life back into perspective - to focus on the really important things, and for soothing reassurance without escapism, there is no better philosophical work than Winnie the Pooh.

I watched a tiny little girl kicking her way down the road on her scooter yesterday - her mother following watchfully from the rear - and once again, I was filled with overwhelming melancholy for a dear little stranger.

It is ironic really, because the Masters of the Universe - not content with squeezing every drop of life-blood from their adult victims - have actually made a supreme effort to steal childhood as well. Look up Christopher Robin's best friend on the net, and you will find a sort of grotesque monster has been put in his place, and that monster was created by another - the Disney Corporation.

A.A. Milne - wise as he was - warns about this in the final chapter, preparing - in as gentle way as possible - his young readers for the inevitable. A sort of Carlos Castaneda for the very young. I know I have posted this before, but - since it is capable of reducing a British Prime Minister to tears - then it is worth re-visiting:

Goodbye? Oh no, please can't we go back to page one and do it all over again?


Sorry Pooh, but all stories have an ending you know.


Oh, bother.


Yes the time had come at last. Christopher Robin was going away to school. Nobody else in the forest knew exactly why or where he was going, all they knew was it had something to do with twice times and how to make things called ABC and where a place called Brazil is.


Pooh, what do you like doing best in the world?


What I like best is me going to visit you and you saying "how about a little spoon of honey?"


I like that too. But what I like best is just doing nothing.


How do you do just nothing?


Well, it's when the grown-ups ask "what are you going to do?" and you're saying nothing and then you go out and do it.


I like that. Let's do it all the time!


You know something Pooh? I'm not allowed to do nothing any more.


You mean never again?


Well, not so much. Pooh, when I'm away just doing nothing will you come up here sometimes?


You mean alone? Just me?


Yes. And Pooh, promise you won't forget me, ever?


Oh I won't Christopher, I promise.


Not even when I'm a hundred?


How old shall I be then?


99, silly old bear.


Wherever they go and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on top of the forest, a little bear will always be waiting.


10 comments:

  1. Lady M's people lived just by the 100 acre wood (Ashdown Forest). We used to go and do nothing there quite often!

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  2. My mother used to read these stories to us. My favorite is the one where Pooh and Piglet try to fix a house for Eeyore using a pile of sticks found in the snow, only to find out it was actually Eeyore's house they'd pulled apart! Christopher Robin would come in and smooth things out. Love it.

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  3. There are tears, there really are!

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  4. I have shamefully employed the old John Gray trick of putting up tear-jerking posts...

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  5. Am I right in thinking that reading and writing blog posts is a bit like doing nothing? I do hope so.

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    1. I think we both work quite hard, Mise. I cannot speak for others.

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  6. Ah, "modern" childhood - that phase in a consumer's life when they are less discriminating than they might otherwise be and are much more amenable to targeted advertising. The only downside is their relative lack of ready cash and the legal restrictions upon flogging them the most lucrative products such as alcohol, tobacco and petrol.

    I eagerly await the day when Rupert (Murdoch, not Bear) flogs his first in-womb digital TV decoder, and we can advertise to the little sods when they're really ripe ...

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    1. Well said, Owl. Did you mean 'tripe' or 'ripe'?

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