Real

[avad]

"What is 'Real'?" asked the Rabbit one day..."Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"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 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 the 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."

-Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

(thanks to mzungumkali)

Comments

[solarfields.livejournal.com]

I just have to say that The Velveteen Rabbit is my all-time favorite children's book. I have three different copies of it! Do you mind if I post this in my journal too?

[viciated-wilkin.livejournal.com]

but then there are those days where with just a few snips... the silver threads holding you here can be cut...
on those days the world around you is just a shadow or facade of something larger and uncomprehensible..

on those days...
no one is real.