« New Teachers at Maysville | Main | It's a Calling »
July 28, 2004
What Is real?
Lately I have been struggling with the realities of life and how people seem to confuse the differences in reality and fantasy. It is strange how relationships evolve and dissolve based on what one or the other perceives as real or not. I am not sure if many believe in “true love” but being somewhat of a romantist I still do. And I do believe there is that special someone out there for us all. Finding the right one seems to be the problem.
What begins as such wonderful passionate feelings seem to fade into the sunset after a while. Part of that is normal I suppose but if it is real then I don’t think it leaves completely ever. This reminds me of an excerpt in the children’s book,
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams.
The story takes place in the nursery of a small boy and the stuffed animals are discussing how to become “real”. The skin horse who has been made “real” long ago explains this to the new velveteen rabblit.
“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they 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 to be 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 your 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.”
“I suppose you are real?” said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.
“The Boy’s Uncle made me Real,” he said. “That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.”
I do believe that “true love” is real and lasts for always. And YES, I do believe in miracles too.
Posted by nancy at July 28, 2004 07:50 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.mmsonlinenow.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/26