The Tao of Pooh

by Benjamin Hoff

  The play-it-safe pessimists of the world never accomplish much of anything, because they don't look clearly and objectively at situations, they don't recognize or believe in their own abilities, and they won't stretch those abilities to overcome even the smallest amount of risk. For example, when Roo fell into the stream during the famous Expedition to find the North Pole, what did Dismal Eeyore do about it? Long after Roo had been carried away by the current, Eeyore halfheartedly hung his tail over the water so that Roo could grab hold of it and pull himself out—or, more accurately, so that Eeyore would get credit for having tried something. Of course, he didn't really expect it to do any good, and of course it didn't.

  Who was going to rescue Roo? Panicky Piglet was jumping up and down and making noises. Ineffective Owl was instructing Roo to keep his head above water. Concerned Kanga was asking if he was all right. Captain Rabbit was calling out commands. . . . But Positive Pooh was looking at the situation, seeing what he could do about it, and trying something:

  Two pools below Roo he was standing with a long pole in his paws, and Kanga came up and took one end of it, and between them they held it across the lower part of the pool; and Roo, still bubbling proudly, "Look at me swimming," drifted up against it, and climbed out.

  "Did you see me swimming?" squeaked Roo excitedly, while Kanga scolded him and rubbed him down. "Pooh, did you see me swimming? That's called swimming, what I was doing. Rabbit, did you see what I was doing? Swimming. Hallo, Piglet! I say, Piglet! What do you think I was doing! Swimming! Christopher Robin, did you see me——"

  But Christopher Robin wasn't listening. He was looking at Pooh.

  "Pooh," he said, "where did you find that pole?"

  Pooh looked at the pole in his hands.

  "I just found it," he said. "I thought it ought to be useful. I just picked it up."

  "Pooh," said Christopher Robin solemnly, "the Expedition is over. You have found the North Pole!"

  As Pooh found out with the North Pole, once we see what the situation is and what we can do about it, we need to utilize everything we find along the way in order to accomplish whatever is required. More often than not, the things we need are there already; all we have to do is make use of them.

  For example, when Piglet was Trapped by the Flood . . .

  "It's a little Anxious," he said to himself, "to be a Very Small Animal Entirely Surrounded by Water. Christopher Robin and Pooh could escape by Climbing Trees, and Kanga could escape by Jumping, and Rabbit could escape by Burrowing, and Owl could escape by Flying, and Eeyore could escape by—by Making a Loud Noise Until Rescued, and here am I, surrounded by water and I can't do anything. . . ."

  Then suddenly he remembered a story which Christopher Robin had told him about a man on a desert island who had written something in a bottle and thrown it in the sea; and Piglet thought that if he wrote something in a bottle and threw it in the water, perhaps somebody would come and rescue him!

  So he did.

  And when Piglet's bottle came floating past him, Pooh got the message. But then he had to go see Christopher Robin in order to find out what it said.

  So he corked up his biggest honey-jar, dropped it into the water, and jumped in after it. And after a little experimenting with his boat,

  he floated off to Christopher Robin's house, where the message was read and a Rescue planned. Then the two of them realized that they needed a larger boat. So Pooh got an idea:

  And in an exciting Rescue, Piglet was saved by none other than the famous Pooh Bear, Discoverer of the North Pole.

  "Say, Owl. Have you seen Pooh lately?"

  "I rather thought I saw him putting something into the closet a little while ago," Owl replied. "I wasn't paying much attention to the matter, though."

  "The closet? Well, I'll just take a look and——"

  "What is it?" said Owl.

  "Owl, what are all these boxes doing in here?"

  "Boxes?" said Owl.

  "And they're all full of . . . shoes."

  "Shoes?" said Owl.

  "Look at this. Loafers, 8 1/2 A. Sandals, 10 B. Oxfords, 12 1/2 E . .

  "All styles, all sizes," said Owl.

  "Owl, I'm not quite sure, but I believe I Suspect something."

  "It would appear that Pooh is the culprit," said Owl wisely.

  "When you see him, tell him I want to talk with him, will you, Owl?"

  "Absolutely."

  The two Fearless Rescues just mentioned bring us to one of the most important terms of Taoism: Tz'u, which can be translated as "caring" or "compassion" and which is based upon the character for heart. In the sixty-seventh chapter of the Tao Te Ching, Lao-tse named it as his "first treasure," and then wrote, "From caring comes courage." We might add that from it also comes wisdom. It's rather significant, we think, that those who have no compassion have no wisdom. Knowledge, yes; cleverness, maybe; wisdom, no. A clever mind is not a heart. Knowledge doesn't really care. Wisdom does. We also consider it significant that cor, the Latin word for "heart," is the basis for the word courage. Piglet put it this way: "She isn't Clever, Kanga isn't, but she would be so anxious about Roo that she would do a Good Thing to Do without thinking about it." Tz'u not only saved Roo, discovered the North Pole, and rescued Piglet; it also gave Piglet the courage to go get help for Pooh and Owl when Owl's house blew over.

  Now Piglet, as we know, is a Very Small Animal, and not exactly the Bravest one at that, but when Owl's house fell down, Piglet discovered that he had more courage than he had thought he had.

  "Hallo, Owl," said Pooh. "I hope we're not too late for ——I mean, how are you, Owl? Piglet and I just came to see how you were, because it's Thursday."

  "Sit down, Pooh, sit down, Piglet," said Owl kindly. "Make yourselves comfortable."

  They thanked him, and made themselves as comfortable as they could.

  "Because, you see, Owl," said Pooh, "we've been hurrying, so as to be in time for—so as to see you before we went away again."

  Owl nodded solemnly.

  "Correct me if I am wrong," he said, "but am I right in supposing that it is a very Blusterous day outside?"

  "Very," said Piglet, who was quietly thawing his ears, and wishing that he was safely back in his own house.

  "I thought so," said Owl. "It was on just such a blusterous day as this that my Uncle Robert, a portrait of whom you see upon the wall on your right, Piglet, while returning in the late forenoon from a——What's that?"

  There was a loud cracking noise.

  "Look out!" cried Pooh. "Mind the clock! Out of the way, Piglet! Piglet, I'm falling on you!"

  "Help!" cried Piglet . . . .

  "Pooh," said Piglet nervously.

  "Yes?" said one of the chairs.

  "Where are we?"

  "I'm not quite sure," said the chair.

  "Are we—are we in Owl's House?"

  "I think so, because we were just going to have tea, and we hadn't had it."

  "Oh!" said Piglet. "Well, did Owl always have a letter-box in his ceiling?"

  But after the chair was pulled off of Pooh and he had taken a look around, he came up with a Plan. Owl would fly up to the letter-box with a piece of string, push the string through the wire in the basket, and fly down again. Then Piglet would hold onto one end of the string while Pooh and Owl pulled on the other end . . .

  "And there Piglet is," said Owl. "If the string doesn't break."

  "Supposing it does?" asked Piglet, wanting to know.

  'Then we try another piece of string."

  This was not very comforting to Piglet, because however many pieces of string they tried pulling him up with, it would always be the same him coming down; but still, it did seem the only thing to do. So with one last look back in his mind at all the happy hours he had spent in the Forest not being pulled up to the ceiling by a piece of string, Piglet nodded bravely at Pooh and said that it was a Very Clever pup-pup-pup Clever pup-pup Plan.

  And at last . . .

  He squeezed
and he squoze, and then with one last sqooze he was out. Happy and excited he turned round to squeak a last message to the prisoners.

  "It's all right," he called through the letter-box. "Your tree is blown right over, Owl, and there's a branch across the door, but Christopher Robin and I can move it, and we'll bring a rope for Pooh, and I'll go and tell him now, and I can climb down quite easily, I mean it's dangerous but I can do it all right, and Christopher Robin and I will be back in about half-an-hour. Good-bye, Pooh!" And without waiting to hear Pooh's answering "Good-bye, and thank you, Piglet," he was off.

  "Half-an-hour," said Owl, settling himself comfortably. "That will just give me time to finish that story I was telling you about my Uncle Robert—a portrait of whom you see underneath you. Now let me see, where was I? Oh, yes. It was on just such a blusterous day as this that my Uncle Robert——"

  "Owl said you wanted to see me," said Pooh.

  "All right, Pooh. Why the boxes of shoes in the closet?"

  "I couldn't help myself," said Pooh.

  "How's that?"

  "Well, first there was the card for Mister Pooh Bear. Then when I got to the store, just for a look . .

  "Yes?"

  "The salesman was so nice to me. 'May I help you, Sir?' he said. He made me feel Important."

  "Pooh, you didn't need those shoes," I said.

  "I'll take them back," said Pooh.

  "That's better."

  "Lots of other people will be taking things back, too, I suppose."

  "What?"

  "I saw lots of people there buying things they didn't really need. All over the store."

  "Quite likely," I said.

  "I wasn't the only one," he said.

  "Of course not, Pooh. A lot of people try to buy Happiness and Importance in the same sort of way. But you can be happy and important without doing that, you know."

  "So can they," said Pooh.

  Well, yes, that's true. So can anyone. Despite what Eeyore once said, when it comes to enjoying life and making use of who we are, all of us can; it's just that some don't.

  Sitting contented by Walden Pond a few years ago, a Wise Observer wrote, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." The desperation may have been quiet then, we suppose. Now, it's deafening. But we don't have to be a part of it. We can stop our desperate clinging to hollow life-substitutes, and set ourselves free. When we make the first move, the process will begin.

  And that brings us to the Tiddely-Pom Principle, which comes from a song by Pooh:

  The more it snows

  (Tiddely pom),

  The more it goes

  (Tiddely pom),

  The more it goes

  (Tiddely pom)

  On snowing.

  It's sometimes referred to as the Snowball Effect, which can remind you of the time you pushed that little ball of snow along, and it got bigger and bigger until it got so big you couldn't stop it, and it rolled all the way down the hill and flattened the neighbor's car, and soon everyone was talking about the Huge Snowball that you let get completely out of control...and that may be why we prefer to think of it as the Tiddely-Pom Principle, instead.

  Now the principle can work negatively or positively. It can promote cynicism as easily as it can encourage hope. It can build hardened criminals or courageous heroes, stupid vandals or brilliant creators. The important thing is to make it work for yourself and for the benefit of others, or face the Ugly Consequences.

  Working with the Tiddely-Pom Principle, you use respect to build Respect. The more it snows, the more it goes:

  So Pooh hummed it to him, all the seven verses and Piglet said nothing, but just stood and glowed. Never before had anyone sung ho for Piglet (PIGLET) ho all by himself. When it was over, he wanted to ask for one of the verses over again, but didn't quite like to. It was the verse beginning "O gallant Piglet," and it seemed to him a very thoughtful way of beginning a piece of poetry.

  "Did I really do all that?" he said at last.

  "Well," said Pooh, "in poetry—in a piece of poetry—well, you did it, Piglet, because the poetry says you did. And that's how people know."

  "Ohl" said Piglet. "Because I—I thought I did blinch a little. Just at first. And it says, 'Did he blinch no no.' That's why."

  "You only blinched inside," said Pooh, "and that's the bravest way for a Very Small Animal not to blinch that there is."

  Piglet sighed with happiness, and began to think about himself. He was BRAVE . . .

  So that later, when Uninformed Eeyore discovered a new house for Owl to move into, and it turned out to be Piglet's...

  "Just the house for Owl. Don't you think so, little Piglet?"

  And then Piglet did a Noble Thing, and he did it in a sort of dream, while he was thinking of all the wonderful words Pooh had hummed about him.

  "Yes, it's just the house for Owl," he said grandly. "And I hope he'll be very happy in it." And then he gulped twice, because he had been very happy in it himself.

  "What do you think, Christopher Robin?" asked Eeyore a little anxiously, feeling that something wasn't quite right.

  Christopher Robin had a question to ask first, and if he was wondering how to ask it.

  "Well," he said at last, "it's a very nice house, and if your own house is blown down, you must go somewhere else, mustn't you, Piglet? What would you do, if your house was blown down?"

  Before Piglet could think, Pooh answered for him.

  "He'd come and live with me," said Pooh, "wouldn't you, Piglet?"

  Piglet squeezed his paw.

  "Thank you, Pooh," he said, "I should love to."

  Do you want to be really happy? You can begin by being appreciative of who you are and what you've got. Do you want to be really miserable? You can begin by being discontented. As Lao-tse wrote, "A tree as big around as you can reach starts with a small seed; a thousand-mile journey starts with one step." Wisdom, Happiness, and Courage are not waiting somewhere out beyond sight at the end of a straight line; they're part of a continuous cycle that begins right here. They're not only the ending, but the beginning as well. The more it snows, the more it goes, the more it goes on snowing.

  Chuang-tse described it this way:

  It is widely recognized that the courageous spirit of a single man can inspire to victory an army of thousands. If one concerned with ordinary gain can create such an effect, how much more will be produced by one who cares for greater things!

  (Applause.) A Toast! To Gallant Piglet and Fearless Pooh—

  Sing ho! for Piglet (PIGLET) ho!

  Sing ho! for Piglet, ho!

  and

  Sing Ho! for a Bear!

  Sing Ho! for a Pooh!

  Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear!

  When they had all nearly eaten enough, Christopher Robin banged on the table with his spoon, and everybody stopped talking and was very silent, except Roo who was just finishing a loud attack of hiccups and trying to look as if it were one of Rabbit's relations.

  "This party," said Christopher Robin, "is a party because of what someone did, and we all know who it was, and it's his party, because of what he did, and I've got a present for him and here it is." Then he felt about a little and whispered, "Where is it?"

  While he was looking, Eeyore coughed in an impressive way and began to speak.

  "Friends," he said, "including oddments, it is a great pleasure, or perhaps I had better say it has been a pleasure so far, to see you at my party. What I did was nothing. Any of you—except Rabbit and Owl and Kanga—would have done the same. Oh, and Pooh. My remarks do not, of course, apply to Piglet and Roo, because they are too small. Any of you would have done the same. But it just happened to be Me. It was not, I need hardly say, with an idea of getting what Christopher Robin is looking for now"—and he put his front leg to his mouth and said in a loud whisper, "Try under the table"—"that I did what I did—but because I feel that we should all do what we can to help. I feel that we should all——"