Growing Old. Becoming Real
How toys become real. How we become real.
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams is the wisest book I know.
Forget Anna Karenina, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and the Bible. They are left choking in the dust thrown up as The Velveteen Rabbit hops to the finish line to be awarded first prize.
The fantasy embedded in the story — that toys can become real if they’re loved, and that a fairy can change a threadbare velveteen rabbit into a real rabbit of the woods with a single kiss — is somewhat maudlin. But there are still treasures within it worth taking notice of, especially as we get older and feel the cold winds called No-Tomorrows blowing on our lined faces.
Skin Horse, who is, in essence, Velveteen Rabbit’s mentor, says to him early in the book:
“Real isn’t how you are made. It’s a thing that happens to you.”
The mystic Skin Horse continues:
“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.
