Time for wisdom from a famous tummy

Photo: Winnie the Pooh

It’s grad season, an important time of transition in young lives. The class of 2020 has a unique situation to say the least: missing out on the social celebrations, the pomp and ceremony and even the boredom of waiting for their name to be called for their walk across the stage. In many cases, speeches were also foregone, so there were no pearls of wisdom either from a class valedictorian or from a famous mentor. 

Many commencement speeches have been recorded and shared as epic examples of motivation and inspiration. They almost always include an uplifting positive example of how to make it in the world. There are many mentors and role models out there, but my favourite is still a childhood friend – that Silly Old Bear, Winnie the Pooh.

I have always been a fan of Winnie the Pooh and his simple wisdom (some have likened it to Eastern Tao-ism, even). With Pooh’s philosophy in mind, I prefer to expand on the old glass of water theory.  After all, if one’s pot of honey is even half full, that’s a good thing. 

Conversely, I have often thought that those who seemed to feel a storm cloud followed them were a bit like Pooh’s friend Eeyore the donkey. “Poor Eeyore,” as he was often known, always seemed to be expecting impending doom, and of course, he was rarely disappointed. He lost his tail, he got broken birthday presents… this guy really had bad luck.

Am I over-simplifying an approach to life? Is this a Pollyanna attitude, ignoring the challenges that inevitably confront us in the world? I’d like to offer someone else’s version of this philosophy as support for my case.

Have you heard of the “Last Lecture”? Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who gave this lecture once he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He gave his best advice, not on a career in computer science and design, but on how to learn to enjoy life. He used the Pooh reference to illustrate his theory. He said you should decide whether you want to be a Tigger or an Eeyore.

For anyone who never encountered the Hundred Acre Wood, Tigger was even more bouncy and positive than Pooh – more of a North American motivator than Eastern, like a Richard Simmons to Pooh’s Buddha. Eeyore and his sadness are something many can identify with these days, but I want to focus on how he got by, getting cheered up by his friends. 

I would like to leave you with my synopsis of why the world worked for the characters in A.A. Milne’s stories:

Theirs was a simple life – Pooh enjoyed a bit of sustenance in a pot of honey, Piglet enjoyed his “haycorns,” Rabbit enjoyed his garden, Owl enjoyed his books, Tigger enjoyed bouncing, Kanga enjoyed taking care of little Roo and all of them enjoyed each other’s company. 

Even Eeyore was happiest when his friends remembered his birthday. Pooh and Piglet brought special gifts. Despite his balloon “of a perfect size and colour” bursting, he got a big thrill of putting the bits in and taking them back out of the empty honey pot Pooh gave him. After all, if you have friends to share your time with, then even the storm clouds can seem not so bad.

There is plenty to feel sad about in the world today. Much of what is happening is not what any of us expected and the future is uncertain. But if we learn from our experiences and consider failures as a step towards success, then we are headed in the right direction. Stopping for a wee bit of sustenance along the way is also important, especially when enjoyed with friends.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.