Thursday Thirteen #4...The Wisdom of Pooh and more words from Frou

Winnie-the-Pooh and the creatures of the 100 acre wood are wonderful creations of whimsy, I was never a fan of the disneyised versions, but can remember loving the original A.A. Milne's stories, Winnie-the-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, and Milne's books of children's poetry, When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six. In the same way I have discovered the adult wisdom in the works of Dr. Suess, Milne had amazing things to say, both silly and profound...

One: “If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you.” ...wouldn't this be a lovely thing to say to your true love...

Two: “It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?"”... short responses rock indeed ...

Three: “You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” ... how easy it would be to hide away in my little corner of the Forest...

Four: “Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh," he whispered. "Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw, "I just wanted to be sure of you."” ... all together now, sigh... I've done this so many times...

Five: “Don't underestimate the value of doing nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering.” ... this isn't something I struggle with at all, my favourite gaze is of the navel variety...

Six: “People who don't think probably don't have brains; rather, they have grey fluff that's blown into their heads by mistake.” ... I wonder if you can get a lint remover for brains?... imagining pushing a bottlebrush through one ear and pulling it out the other...

Seven: “If you want to make a song more hummy, add a few tiddely poms.” ... shall remember this while trying not to make a total arse of myself at Melbourne Millennium Chorus rehearsals... me...singing... in public... in front of thousands... tiddely pom, tiddely pom, tiddely pom, oh crap!

Eight: “When late morning rolls around and you're feeling a bit out of sorts, don't worry; you're probably just a little eleven o'clockish.” ... I'm eleven o'clockish daily...

Nine: “Pooh looked at his two paws. He knew that one of them was the right, and he knew that when you had decided which one of them was the right, then the other was the left, but he never could remember how to begin” ... I couldn't distinguish my left from right until I was a teenager, and even now have to stop and orient myself, though interestingly I also seem to know which way is north!

Ten: "When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you think of Things, you sometimes find that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it" ... probably the best description of the contradiction of the inside of my head and my thoughts and feelings and the outside...

Eleven: "They're funny things, Accidents. You never have them till you're having them" ... wondering if I could use this as part of my health and safety training?

Twelve: “Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon” ... amen...

Thirteen: “A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise” ... double amen...

And just for fun, sing along with Frou...

The more it snows (Tiddely pom),
The more it goes (Tiddely pom),
The more it goes (Tiddely pom),
On snowing.
And nobody knows (Tiddely pom),
How cold my toes (Tiddely pom),
How cold my toes (Tiddely pom),
Are growing.