Tomorrow is another day after all
Discovering the magic of everyday in troubled times with Winnie the Pooh
At the onset of Covid-19, when many of us were still struggling to make sense of the so called ‘new normal’, beloved childhood classics experienced a comeback on bestseller lists. From memes of Pooh enjoying ‘doing nothing’ in the Hundred Acre Wood going viral to NHS workers actively tweeting images from Charlie Mackesy’s 2019 smash hit The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse, considered a worthy successor to Pooh himself, these tales of love, friendship and nature seem to hold universal appeal for both young and old in times of crisis.
There is much scope for re-discovery when we decide to immerse ourselves once again into Narnia, Earthsea or Oz- a chance to ‘refind things we may not realise we have lost’ or a possibility to see a world ‘as colossal’ once more, as author Katherine Rundell terms it.
I confess to sometimes fitting in a children’s classic as something of a palate cleanser, after having made short work of books of a challenging nature that feature dense prose-(I’m looking at you, Moby Dick!😄). It’s a habit for when I want to rest my mind after having experienced the equivalent of a literary roller coaster. As the months dragged on, I found myself in need of something simple in a time where nothing was and so I decided to give Winnie the Pooh a spin just for the sake of it.
The ‘silly old bear’ had me stop in my tracks several times.
What seems on the surface a story about a bear enamoured by his love of honey, following one hare brained scheme after another, is actually much more profound. Pooh is a clear non-conformist who doesn’t let himself be dragged down by the world or his immediate circumstances. Someone tells him one can’t get honey with balloons? He believes he still can. He doesn’t look like a piece of sky? Well, that’s because things are different from up high. And when he can’t get the honey after all? Well, then it wasn’t the right sort to begin with!
Pooh doesn’t regret his choices or sink into despair but trots on-something many of us so called adults can learn from. Even confronted with the fact that he is not as clever as Owl, Eeyore or his great friend, Christopher Robin, he is still the first to acknowledge it but the last to let it stand in the way of what he wants his life to look like.
Going through our lives, how many of us bemoan the fact that we are not more intelligent or beautiful or successful or any other number of different things we think we should be? Sometimes, I can’t help but think that we’d all do better if we stopped worrying so much and started wondering what’s for lunch, as our favourite yellow bear does on a daily basis.
Winnie the Pooh is truly content with the life he leads and he achieves that by taking pleasure in even the smallest things. Consider this quote:
‘When you wake up in the morning, Pooh’, said Piglet at last, what’s the first thing you say to yourself?’
‘What’s for breakfast?’ said Pooh.’What do you say, Piglet?’
‘I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?’ said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. ‘It’s the same thing’ he said.
That happy serenity that Pooh seems to exude is what makes him the most popular character in the story-it is also what makes him the perfect Taoist.
The Tao of Pooh argues that Pooh, as someone who intrinsically follows his own nature, from constantly searching for honey to going with the flow when living his life is better at facing problems than clever Rabbit or learned Owl.
How is he so successful? According to Taoism, it is because Pooh is the very embodiment of the principle of The Uncarved Block. When he gets stuck with his friends in a sandpit, Pooh is the only one who suggests that they try finding their way home by not looking for it but moving away from the pit and trying to find it-something that may seem illogical at the first glance but makes sense for anyone who has struggled with Google Maps showing a destination nowhere in sight, forcing one to deviate from the ‘right’ path to follow the ‘wrong’ one.
Pooh is actually the true genius-one who is not aware of his stellar qualities and thereby free to shine without constraints. All of his friends are clever in their own way but caught up in their own limitations. Owl, despite knowing much, cannot easily come to conclusions because he wants to be clever in order to appear wise while Eeyore, who knows many things only uses that knowledge to have people take notice of his ‘sorry plight’. They all want to seem a certain way due to their respective intelligence. Pooh wants nothing because he lives in the conviction that he already has everything in his pots of honey, his home and his friends, freeing him up to be as unconventional a thinker as he wants to be-without the danger of ever growing arrogant.
The wise are not learned, the learned are not wise
Laotse in Tao-Te Ching
For myself, I’ve taken away three things from his attitude.
- Dream! There is no such thing as impossible when it might just be that things look different from up high. When you shift vantage points, a problem may just melt away and if it doesn’t work out after all, then it is never on you-the whole world still awaits you on the morrow!
- Question! Just because someone has done something in a certain way for ages past there is no reason why it should continue to stay that way.
- Be happy! Allow yourself to smile and take comfort in the little things, even when people in this world would have you believe that the tortured soul or the sleepless worker are the epitome of societal grace. Sophistication doesn’t always grant you a peaceful and content life but simple joy goes a long way on that quest.
Sources
Hoff, B. (1982) The Tao of Pooh. New York: Dutton
