Work in progress...

"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 often 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." The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

I attended an event for my significant other's daughter and one of the high school seniors who spoke quoted this passage from my favorite children's book of all time. The irony of the importance of this book is remarkable b/c I didn't have the opportunity to read it until I was grown and married, and my mother-in-law found out I had never read it...so she gave it to me as a gift. I treasure this book for so many reasons. I appreciate the thoughtfullness behind the gesture of the gift, but I appreciate this story I think every child should understand. When I heard the most valuable part of the story outloud it was hard to hold back the emotions that touched me deeply. I didn't know the story of the girl who wept as she read her speech, but I knew those feelings in high school when it mattered to be Real, when you weren't. And it mattered what people thought. I also knew how terribly overwhelming it was when I was no longer ugly (except to people who didn't understand) and it no longer mattered.

Here's to having all your hair loved off~