Show me the honey!

In order to complete this project in a reasonable time , I am going to have to read some every day. Now, that seems like an easy task to accomplish, right? Not so much...Audra and I went to breakfast and grocery shopping this morning and then vegged out on the couch watching "HOUSE" re-runs. Yes, we were on the same couch...not like that, boys. Then, my kids came home and it was dinnertime. Now, here I had an entire day that I could have steeped myself in this project, yet I didn't quite make it to that quiet place to curl up and read...

Something even better happened...

You see, in this endeavor, children's books are included. I thought it would be great fun to read the children's books to my children while tackling the more substantive stuff at the same time. Substantive...hmmm...what was I thinking?

As it got to be bedtime, I gave Henry his tall, glass of milk and Mallory her water and tucked them into their respective comfy beds with blankies and all...and I started to read A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh. And they loved it. Henry was full of "hi, mommies," as is his usual bedtime chant. Mallory was asking all the important storyline questions that every 5 year old with a 30 year old's vocabulary should--about the logistics of actually getting the honey from the hive they never mention and how one could accomplish Pooh's feat without being stung. What a delightful way to drift to slumber...

But then I picked up the book again to re-read the parts we had read without the distraction of having to make all the voices. And there really are some important life lessons and parallels in just the first few pages. Now, Pooh, as you might know, is ALWAYS looking for honey. That is his life's quest. He is a bear and they, bears, apparently eat honey at every opportunity. In the passage we read, Pooh hears bees and then sets forth an apparently logical (albeit narcissistic) set of his beliefs that lead him to exactly the truth he desires.

"That buzzing noise means something. You don't get a buzzing noise like that...without it meaning something. If there is a buzzing noise, somebody's making a buzzing noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing noise that I know of is because you're a bee...[a]nd the only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey...[a]nd the only reason for making honey is so as I can eat it."

So, he begins to climb the tree.

Wow. I see so many parallells for many of the rest of us in our own lives. We are seekers of love (or some other addiction), we humans, and many must have it like Pooh needs honey. We hear or see something--or even trick ourselves into thinking we do--and believe that it means what we want it to mean. We set off on a set of beliefs we have created solely for the purpose of making what we want seem logical...just as Pooh somehow gets to the conclusion that bees exist solely for his honey addiction.

Good literature typically has underlying themes and thoughts that give the reader's imagination and own set of experiences a chance for wonder and ponder. Even though written as a children's book and certainly supplying entertainment for my children, it was beautiful food for thought as I set out as I set out singularly in this world.

It has been a while since I have read the classic Winnie the Pooh as I now am, so I am not sure how Pooh Bear makes it with his plight. I will keep you updated. In the meantime, I have to go make sure those bees are making my honey...as they were made to do.