Author's Note: When Marnie and I were invited to speak at my school's Honor's Banquet on the subject of "Looking Forward to Scholarship", I had very mixed emotions, since my plan was to leave school after my sophomore year and go to massage therapy school. This is what we said.
Looking Ahead. Looking Ahead. It seems as if today's society is always Looking Ahead. During our portion of this evening's program, we would like to discuss what the future may hold for us. However, with the help of A.A. Milne--author of Winnie-the-Pooh, and Benjamin Hoff--author of the Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet, we have discovered that in order for us to find out where we are going, first we have to find out where we are.
The major goal of a college student is to "become educated." However, while it is important to be goal oriented, it is equally important to recognize that there is an inherent danger in becoming goal obsessive. It is our hope that getting this education will not deter this student from the simple pleasures in life.
We are going to take you on a journey, by way of A.A. Milne's creative vision, known to most of us through the Pooh stories, in hopes that we may all begin to recognize Inner Nature...who we are as individuals, our own unique identities...and work with things As They Are.
While it is a fact that no two snowflakes are alike, it's equally true that no two people are alike. Each of us has our own Inner Nature. We're going to share with you a verse of a song that Winnie-the-Pooh often sings. But before we do, Pooh wants to remind us that the words Cottleston Pie are a way of saying Inner Nature.
Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly. Ask me a riddle and I reply: "Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie."
A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly. That's obvious. The fly that tries to "bird" is ignoring the reality that Things Are As They Are. It is trying to be something that its nature won't allow it to be.
Everything has its own place and function. This also applies to people. We all know people at this university who have changed their majors several times in search of satisfaction. It is erroneous to think that simply changing a major will fulfill one's life. Is it possible that people who frequently jump from one major to another never took the time to consider what would make them happy? What they wanted to achive in life? Perhaps they never listened to their Inner Nature. But that is all in the past, we no longer have control over that. Let's instead consider the future--something over which we do have control. We have an opportunity to learn and benefit from the past and therefore avoid making the same mistakes in the future. We need to take a look at the past and experience the present which will in turn guide our future. When you know and respect your Inner Nature, you know where you do and don't belong.
The one character who really needs to learn this is Tigger. Hoff writes, "As anyone who's been around one knows, Tiggers are first-rate at starting things, but are not very good at completing them. Life is always greener elsewhere to a Tigger once he's started something, and the Endless Possibilities constantly beckon--especially when he gets himself into a difficult situation, which is one thing Tiggers do quite easily."
This is evident when Tigger tried to show Roo that climbing trees is what Tiggers do best. With Roo on his back, he climbed up a very tall tree in The 100 Acre Wood. But Tigger forgot that he could not climb back down because his tail gets in the way. Unless they wanted to go higher, it appeared they would have to stay there forever.
We are surrounded by Tiggers--restless seekers of instant gratification, larger-than-life overachievers. "The major lesson Tiggers need to learn is that if they don't control their impulses, their impulses will control them. No matter how much they do, Tiggers are never satisfied because they don't know the feeling of accomplishment that eventually comes when one persistently applies one's will to the attaining of not-immediately-reachable-goals."
The final problem with the Tigger Tendency is that "the worthwhile and important things in life--wisdom and happiness in particular--are not the sorts of things one can Chase after and Grab. They are instead the sorts of things that come to us where we are, if we let them--if we stop trying too hard and just let things happen as they need to."
Along with the Tigger Tendency comes the illusion of the Great Reward, the idea that everything we've always dreamed of is just around the next corner. A character who Milne introduces to examplify this idea is the Busy Backson. This name is a play on words representing the type of people who are always doing something or going somewhere, leaving little trails of notes behind them which say, "Busy--Back Soon." The Busy Backson seems to think that only through constant toil and drudgery can true happiness be attained.
Hoff writes, "Our Busy Backson religions, sciences, and business ethics have tried their hardest to convince us that there is a Great Reward waiting for us somewhere, and that what we have to do is spend our lives working like lunatics to catch up with it. Whether it's up in the sky, behind the next molecule, or in the executive suite, it's somehow always farther along than we are..."
Why is it that this Great Reward is kept just beyond our reach? Have you ever stopped to think that there might be a reason? Consider the carrot and the stick. In order to keep a mule pulling a cart, the driver of the cart ataches a carrot to the end of a stick and places it in front of the mule, but does the mule ever get the carrot? No, it is always the same distance away--just out of reach.
Do you ever feel like a mule? If so, you need to discover what your Great Reward in life truly is. What is it that gives you happiness? If it is based on someone else's idea of how to attain their definition of happiness, then you will be a slave to their ideal. But if you reach deep inside with the intent to discover your true Inner Nature, (some people call it their inner child), then you can find out what really makes you happy.
It is following our Inner Nature, our Inner Child, that frees us from the cart driver's yoke and reins. It is only when we have done this that we will start to truly understand what a little bear named Pooh was trying to tell us.
We need to take the time out of our "Busy Backson schedules" to recognize our Inner Nature, work with things As They Are, and enjoy the simple pleasure in life once again. As Pooh advises, Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."
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