Pooh & Christopher Robin

Growing up I remember reading A. A. Milne’s books, Winnie the Pooh and House at Pooh Corner. Pooh was first introduced to me by my Canadian Mother and the books I read were hers when she was a little girl in Vancouver, British Columbia.

I next remember Pooh when we were raising my son Alec. Instead of the books, we watched the Disney Videos. When I was stationed in England from 1994-1997, Alec and I got to play “Pooh Sticks” in the real 100 Acre Woods (The Real 100 Acre Woods) in Ashdown Forest in East Sussex. One of my favorite tea mugs came from a shop in the 100 Acre Woods.

When the movie, Christopher Robin, came out last year, we went to see it in Boulder. I admit that my eyes were red and hardly dry when the lights came up after the closing credits. Watching the grown up Christopher Robin as a survivor of World War 1 (A. A. Milne served in Europe during that War) with PTSD and an overwhelming sense of having to be grown up from a very early age made my heart ache.

The relationship with his wife and daughter as he tried to be “the provider” for his family despite the emptiness in his own soul was heart wrenching. When he meets Pooh again, the struggle to remember his childhood friend and reconcile who he was and who Pooh was is poignant.

As I laughed and wept through the movie, I realized that this is a lesson for all of us. When we leave our childhood behind, somehow we leave behind our innocence and brighter outlook on life. But we don’t have to leave it behind. We can, instead, integrate it into who we become as adults.

As an adult, I realize that Pooh and Piglet and the rest of the gang in the 100 Acre Woods are still my friends and they are still teaching me if I only take the opportunity to listen.

Will we be friends forever? Silly Old Bear, of course we will! And you will continue to teach me much about life.