Okay, I know I haven’t posted for a while. I’ve been busy starting classes and getting used to life at school again. I want to put up something thought-provoking, but I really haven’t had the time to really craft any good writing. So, I’m going to put up somebody else’s writing.
As a little kid, I always loved the Winnie the Pooh stories by A. A. Milne. And I’m talking about the original books, not the Disney knock-offs, which really aren’t that great. There is one poem, though, that I always enjoyed, and you won’t see Disney turning this one into a cute little movie anytime soon.
It’s called “Teddy Bear.” You can read the full poem here, because I’m not sure if I feel comfortable copying the entire poem. But I’ll summarize it for you. Winnie the Pooh, referred to as “Edward Bear” in this work, is concerned that he is too fat. He spends his days staring outside the window and envying “those who walked about/Reducing their unwanted stout./None of the people he could see/’Is quite,’ he said, ‘as fat as me!'” He spends his night stuffed inside an ottoman, in which he finds a picture book with kings and queens in it. One of the royalty in the book is “King Louis So-and-So/Nicknamed ‘The Hansome!…And (think of it) the man was fat!” Pooh is very encouraged to find such a person. I think we all are when we discover someone who is fat and beautiful and confident and important. But he very astutely observes, “Is Louis So-and-So still living?/Fashions in beauty have a way/Of altering from day to day.” The next day, Pooh is pondering this question as he looks out the window, which happens to be open. He falls out suddenly when…
There happened to be passing by/A plump man with a twinkling eye/Who, seeing Teddy in the street,/Raised him politely to his feet/…Our bear could only look and look:/The stout man in the picture book!/That ‘hansome king’–could this be he?/This man of adiposity?/…”Are you,” he said, “by any chance/His Majesty the King of France?”/The other answered, “I am that.”
And after his meeting with “the King of France,” Pooh is a changed bear. He…
however hard he tries,/Grows tubby without exercise./Our Teddy Bear is short and fat,/Which is not to be wondered at./But do you think it worries him/To know that he is far from slim?/No, just the other way about–/He’s proud of being short and stout.
There are so many Fat Acceptance ideas and HAES (health at every size) ideas in this poem! (And this poem was written long before the FA movement or HAES.) I love how it makes note that fashions change. At one point in time, being fat was considered beautiful. It meant that you had enough to eat! I also love how it affirms Pooh at the end of the poem. The moral isn’t that he should be thinner. It’s that he should be proud of his body exactly the way it is. I hope that little children are still being exposed to this kind of literature. I’m sure that kids (and even teachers and parents too) around them will not be giving them this kind of empowering message.
Life as a Cup of Coffee 