Yeah... Pooh Bear. Got a problem with it?
You decided to read a Winnie the Pooh book. You needed to read something completely opposite from the last book because Good Grief! That was depressing.
You had no idea that Winnie the Pooh was so old. A.A. Milne's first Pooh book came out 87 years ago! You thought Pooh had only been around since the 60's, probably because that's when Disney started making the cartoons. Stupid Disney, always corrupting the way you think about things. While the classic characters are quite a bit different from the Disney creations (Eeyore is a lot more sarcastic than you'd expected) they maintained their basic traits. Pooh is always sweet and daft and hungry, Piglet is worried and fearful and constantly seeking approval, Rabbit is always bossy and controlling, Tigger is perpetually bouncy and quixotic, Kanga is a perfect mother, and Roo the perfect little son. These characters were familiar and comforting, and just the thing you needed after the last book's wrenching imagery.
The book itself, the physical book, was charming as well. The small hardback was only slightly larger than your open palm with a little pooh Bear silhouette embossed into the soothingly light blue cover. The edge of each page was lined with silver, so that when the book was open you couldn't see anything remarkable, but when it was closed it appeared to be a block of precious metal nestled in a hard back cover. This silver lining caught the light every time you turned a page so that it seemed like there was a shimmering archway leading you to each new page. Ebooks are great and encourage people to read more, and nothing will ever supplant their extraordinary portability and ease of access, but there really is something about holding a good, solid, dead-tree book in your hand.
You wanted to write this review and talk about each of the characters in these short stories. You wanted to examine the idea that each animal represents a different personality type, and how sometimes people can reflect more than one of these stereotypes. You wanted to focus on how loving Christopher Robin is to all of his friends, and how we are all equally worthy of love, regardless of how we interact with the world. You wanted to highlight some of the simple yet insightful language, to extensively quote some of the more quietly profound moments that struck you as wise and valuable for children to remember as they grow up.
But that's not what you wanted to remember about this book when you were done reading it. What you wanted to remember was the last chapter, maybe really only the last two or three pages.
A.A. Milne wrote many Winnie the Pooh stories and poems. They mostly only involve the animals in the Hundred Acre Woods and their interactions. Occasionally, Christopher Robin shows up to provide advice, encouragement, and moral support. Christopher Robin is clearly an homage to Milne's own son, Christopher Robin Milne. These stories were written as Milne's way of capturing his son's childish imagination for posterity, so that his love for his stuffed animals would never be forgotten. In the last chapter of "The House at Pooh Corner," it becomes clear to all the animals that Christopher Robin is leaving them. They don't know where he is going, but you knew that this meant that he was growing up... as little boys do.
Eeyore writes Christopher Robin a poem saying goodbye and all of the animals sign it as best they can. They all deliver the poem to him but as he reads it, the animals all fade away back into the wood. When the boy finishes reading and lifts his head only Pooh Bear is left.
His beloved silly old Bear.
As the last few silver lined pages unfolded before you, Christopher Robin and Pooh Bear get up and go on one last walk through the woods together. They talk as they always have, as friends who understand one another more deeply than even they themselves realize. Christopher Robin admits to Pooh that what he loves more than anything else in the world is doing Nothing. "How do you do Nothing?" Pooh wonders aloud.
"Well," says Christopher Robin," it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, What are you going off to do, Christopher Robin, and you say, Oh, nothing, and then you go and do it." "Oh, I see," Pooh says.
Soon the two arrive at an enchanted spot on a hilltop, surrounded by trees. And for the first time in their lives together, Christopher Robin begins telling Pooh Bear about the real world; about Kings and Knights, about factories and a place called Europe. Pooh Bear, enchanted and confused (as always) asks if a Bear could be a Knight. So right there in that enchanted spot on a hill in the Hundred Acre Woods, Christopher Robin makes a Knight of his best friend.
Suddenly, chin in hands and eyes on the world spread out at the foot of the hill, Christopher Robin admits to Pooh that,
"I'm not going to do nothing anymore.""Never again?""Well, not so much. They don't let you."
At this, Pooh promises to always be there for his closest and dearest friend, and that he will never forget Christopher Robin.
"Pooh, said Christopher Robin earnestly, "If I - if I'm not quite -- " he stopped and tried again -- "Pooh, whatever happens, you will understand, won't you?""Understand what?""Oh, nothing." He laughed and jumped to his feet. "Come on!""Where?" said pooh.""Anywhere," said Christopher Robin.
And then this last paragraph got you.
"So they went off together. But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing."
That place isn't on a hill in a Forest, it's in A. A. Milne's heart. It's in the heart of every good parent. It's that part of us all, that part of you that wants your children to grow up, but realizes how deeply you will miss them when they do, how deeply you already miss their younger selves. As a father of young boys, people are always reminding you that these wonderful moments of childhood imagination and joy are so fleeting, they want to tell you to hold on to them and remember them.
Nicholas with his imaginary T-Rex friend, Kranken, or his invisible mouse protector, Canby. Lincoln with his stuffed Woody doll from Toy Story; every child is Christopher Robin at some point in their lives. And every parent is A.A. Milne. "The house at Pooh Corner" was one father's way of cherishing his son's childhood, and it was a reminder to you to not let your boys' childhoods slip away without taking the time to notice the little things, to treasure them, and to do what you can to remember them. They won't last long.
On to the next book!
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