Becoming REAL

"What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“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 often 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 your 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.”
~ The Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams

Last night we went to the library. Boy got bored with the books rather quickly, so Beloved took him outside while I found a few things. I was looking through the children's CDs and came across a reading of the Velveteen Rabbit. I loved the story as a child...I kept hoping I could give the gift of REAL to my toys.

Now, I'm wondering about an entirely different meaning of the story...as it applies to slaves. Masters strip us of the makeup and clothes, remove the smugness and pride, drive us to tears that wash everything else away until the REAL is all that is left. Slaves are the lucky ones.

Thank you Beloved, for REALLY loving me.