In this story, the Rabbit is lost in the midst of a lot of new toys that have more "bells and whistles" than he. Some of the toys have wind up mechanisms, some of the toys have movable limbs and so in addition to being tossed aside and forgotten, the rabbit is overcome with feelings of inadequacy. He begins to feel looked down upon by everyone else.
How many times have you felt this way? How many times has this feeling of being less important translated into outright envy of others.......for me this is constant struggle. Sometimes my self esteem is hanging right on the edge of a cliff, ready to be knocked over by the first person that comes along that is more “something” than I am. Sometimes, I just feel better in a group of people with similar problems as mine. It is no fun to go to lunch with a friend that weighs 100 pounds wet that eats a bite or two of a salad and says I’m full. It is not a good feeling to go walk at the track and be lapped several times by some power walker when I am hobbling along. I hate shopping with people who don’t even look at what something costs. The same is true of other areas, not just weight and appearence. A man friend of mine said he is very uncomfortable at a Church he attends because all of the men had "better jobs"......Even though he is happy with what he does and feels compensated fairly for it, when he is around these "well known and successful" men, he feels his self worth plummet.
As the story goes on, the Rabbit befriends an old horse who has no tail and is worn and losing his eyes. The Horse tells the rabbit about something special, called being REAL. The rabbit really wants to be real...until the horse tells him that being real is sometimes painful and that being real means that you aren't shiny and new and perfect because you are loved and handled and cared for so much. And soon after, when the boys favorite bedtime toy is lost, the Rabbit becomes the replacement...and slowly but surely, he becomes so loved by the boy that he begins to lose his fur and he gets dirty and his pink nose begins to wear off from being kissed so often by the boy. And one day when the Nanny remarks that he's just and old toy and the Boy comes to his defense and says "he isn't a toy, he's real" the Rabbit almost bursts with pride.
As people, I think that we sometimes forget that to be real we have to let our flaws show. The people that love us in spite of our flaws are the greatest treasures we have. Think about the people in your life that would love you no matter what size you are, or what job you have or don't have, or what possessions you have acquired or not acquired. These are the REAL people and these are the ones that matter. . If we are afraid to risk being real, because we fear others will reject us, we can never have that incredible feeling of unconditional love.
I had a friend who always looked as if she stepped out of a magazine page. Her clothes were always perfectly ironed and trendy, her nails always perfectly manicured, her hair always in place, her makeup always perfect. She spent a lot of time on herself and her appearance. Now, there is nothing wrong with that except that the reason she did this was because her husband was always looking at and commenting on beautiful women. She did not dare look less than perfect for fear that she would be replaced. She was miserable. What’s more, her kids were miserable because she was so uptight about her appearance that she didn’t “play with them” because she couldn’t risk getting “dirty”.
One day we took our kids to the park. It had rained a few days before and the swings had puddles of water under them still. My boys immediately ran to the swings, stood in the mud puddles and began to splash each other. She was horrified. Her children didn’t make a move from her side. Finally, her little girl said, can we play in the mud mommy? Absolutely not! she replied. I felt so bad for her kids because her need for perfection had filtered down to them. When the boys yelled for me to come and push them, I did just that. I knew that the joy of playing with my boys far outweighed any dirt or mud or messed up hair I might get. By the time we were through playing , I was as muddy as they were. My friend and her kids were sitting on the picnic bench which she had spread a blanket on to keep the dirt off and looking pretty miserable.
The story takes a sad turn as the boy develops Scarlett Fever and all of his bedding and toys that have germs must be burned. And so the Rabbit is banished to the burn pile. I know sometimes a lot of us feel the pain the Rabbit must've felt . Maybe some of us have been rejected and never told the reason or left behind when the newness wears off. The Rabbit was saved from the burn pile and made into a Real Rabbit by a fairy godmother in the story. And at the end of the story, the Boy comes across some real rabbits in the woods. "Why you look like my Old bunny" the boy says. And he reflects for a moment on the memories of the bunny and he feels happy inside. Because when you are loved, truly loved, you are never forgotten by those that love you...You may be separated from someone you love by death or distance or other reasons, but you are always in that person’s heart.
I think that we should all make it a goal in our lives to Focus on being real ....let others know you struggle just as they do, open up and reach out.....let those flaws hang out....play in the mud, you will find that people love you anyway....and if they don't seek out those who do and will.
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