Who Are You?

Posted on Thursday, June 23, 2011

I have been reading Winnie-the-Pooh to my kids. We went on the ride at Disney a while back and I realized I didn’t really know the story. Someone told me today that a new movie is coming out too- we will definitely go. A while back, I downloaded it for free when we first got our iPad. I am only now getting around to reading it to the girls- chapter by chapter. I wonder if A.A. Milne ever in his wildest dreams imagined that people all over the globe could have his work in their hands in a matter of seconds through a digital devise connected to communication waives in mid-air? Amazing how far our technology has developed, while the themes that define who we are really haven’t.

The language in Winnie-the Pooh is smart and funny and of a timeless, introspective quality. With especially Pooh, we are given a window into his funny and sometimes confused thought process, which mostly surrounds food and his next meal of honey. In Chapter 8, Pooh Bear is approaching Rabbit about an imaginary expedition to the North Pole with Christopher Robin:

"Hallo, Rabbit," (said Winnie-the-Pooh), "is that you?"
"Let's pretend it isn't, said Rabbit, "and see what happens."
"I've got a message for you."
"I'll give it to him."

This phrase has stuck with me ever since I read it. I’ve been pondering it like Pooh does honey. Pooh is talking to Rabbit, but Rabbit chooses in that moment to pretend that he is someone else to “See what happens.” Rabbit is still not so detached from reality that he cannot transmit a message to him- especially if he likes what he hears.

Are you like that? Is the person that you present to be really you or is it someone else’s interpretation of you- their take on your little fairy tale. Are you yourself to your spouse or are you hiding from something? Are you afraid for the person that is closest to you to really know you on an intimate level so that you can enjoy a deep connection- real community? I know that I often am, but intellectualizing it and living it are sometimes very different.

Other than Winnie, I have read several other books lately in the search to find Craig Robertson- Half Time, The Cause Within You, Orphanology and now Sacred Romance. Fall of the House of Zeus was also entertaining but indirectly impactful. In Sacred Romance, Curtis and Eldredge gave insight into the question:

We put our hope in meeting a lover who will give us some form of immediate gratification, some taste of transcendence that will place a drop of water on our parched tongue. This taste of transcendence, coming as it does from nontranscendnet source, whether that be an affair, a drug, an obsession with sports, pornography, or living off of our giftedness, has the same effect on our souls as crack cocaine. Because the gratification touches us in the heart-place made for transcendent communion, without itself being transcendent, it attaches itself to our desire with chains that render us captive.

Maybe that’s what Rabbit was talking about. I am me, but not today because I am being fueled by temporary desires and temporary sources that are inadequate to complete or define me.

My word-for-the-month is TRANSCEND. Like Rabbit, I am too often not necessarily me because the me in my mind is boring or non-adventurous or whatever. Not only do I want to be me, I want to be the best version of me. The me that hovers a little bit over the ground and tingles in my toes and through my fingers.

So, stop pretending when asked that it isn’t you. Try to be you and…….See what happens.

By: Craig Robertson