Day 3534: Desolation

 

"Desolation": junk mail collage & digital.

 

Want music?

Click here: Prince, Sweet Thing.

then click back on this blog tab or here to listen as you browse, or not?

 

 

 

2GN2S ...

'The Velveteen Rabbit' turns 100, its message continues to resonate

It's a big question for a children's book. The main character in The Velveteen Rabbit, first published in 1922, is a simple toy "stuffed with sawdust" and ears "lined with pink sateen."

He feels inadequate next to the fancier, mechanical toys who are "full of modern ideas, and pretended they were real. "So the Rabbit asks the Skin Horse, the oldest and wisest of the toys, "What is REAL?"

"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.

 In the age of 24/7 social media, hot takes and so-called Real Housewives, a story about authenticity might seem out of place. Yet Margery Williams Bianco's rabbit tale still resonates. Excerpts are read at weddings. There have been numerous print, screen and theater adaptations. The story has never gone out of print.

  Margery Williams from "Writings and Criticism:

1951

Margery Williams was born in London in 1881. She was very close to her father who was a barrister and a classical scholar. Williams wrote that he "believed children should be taught to read early and then have no regular teaching until they were 10." Her favorite book was Wood's Natural History which she found in his library. "I knew every reptile, bird and beast in those volumes long before I knew my multiplication table," she recalled. When Williams was 7 years old, her father died suddenly.

In 1904, Margery Williams married Francesco Bianco, an Italian book dealer living in London. They had a daughter, Pamela Bianco, who was a child prodigy. Pamela's story inspired Laurel Davis Huber to write The Velveteen Daughter. As a little girl, Pamela's art was shown in major galleries in Europe and the U.S. and written about in major publications. The early fame took a toll on Pamela. She was hospitalized for depression.

The part that "grabbed me by the heart" is when the Skin Horse tells the Rabbit: "...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."

 

 

Update ...

Greetings from the house on the hill! It was a cool slightly windy day and the clouds were moving fast. I started by shooting the view from Superman's office ...

 

 then I went outside to get direct shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good friend, Carole came for lunch, bringing lunch! After, we sat outside to watch clouds. It was 64' so Carole had a blanket to keep her warm, and I had a heavy sweatshirt with the hood up. The sun was warm, but the wind made it cold.

 

 

 

 As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, here, airplanes fly high overhead on their way to John Wayne Airport, and I was determined to try to capture one. If your eyesight is keen you may see the plane below. I couldn't see if I got it on my phone, but on my laptop, there it was, tiny but there.

Since I didn't know if I got the plane or not, I kept trying. It was comical, Carole spotting a plane and me trying to get my phone open and ready to shoot before it disappeared.

Did you find it?

 

 

 

 

An unusual 3-minute video, space dive, here.

 

 

Just because ...

  

Two-banded Courser

 

 

Smiles for Saturday ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

                                                               Thanks for coming by today.