But the stuffed animals? I have trouble with the stuffed animals. We have several, lots, one might even say quite a few. Even between the two girls, they only play with a select group and I know there are some forgotten stuffed friends that need to move on to another destination. But...
I look at their little embroidered faces with their little button eyes and I just can't let go. I don't really believe that they come to life when we're not looking or that they have their own little personalities. I know it's silly. Still, I just can't help myself from wanting to give them a chance.
Poor little things. They just want to be loved. They just want to be real.
"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."Excerpt from "The Velveteen Rabbit", by Margery Williams
1 comment:
I have the same issue when it comes to our stuffed little zoo...there are stuffed animals from my childhood in the mix too, and I just can't toss them.
I'm glad I still have a few of the really old, but well preserved ones, because now that the kids are older they are fascinated by stories of when I was their age, millions and millions of years ago.
While they may not come to life, the stuffed animals do inspire interesting conversations and stories at bedtime.
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