Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The Velveteen Rabbit

It doesn't have much to do with criminal defense work or the law in general, but I found the quote below in a stack of books my kids have long forgotten. It's from The Velveteen Rabbit and it reminded me of last weekend and of my trip to TLC:

"What is Real?" asked the Rabbit...

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, 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 your are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."


The part about being real not happening to people who "break easily" reminds me of the Hemingway quote that says "the world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places." Not everyone becomes real and not everyone learns to become stronger at the broken places, but some succeed.

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