If The Velveteen Rabbit had a prequel, it would surely be Margaret Wise Brown's classic story that appears every year at Easter time, The Golden Egg Book. This is a little story about the miraculous accident we call friendship--which is to say it as about the miracle that emerges when we accept each other. That acceptance comes despite the hurt we often unwittingly, or selfishly, inflict on each other.
The story begins: Once there was a bunny. He was all alone. One day he found an egg. He could hear something moving inside the egg. What was it?
The bunny is determined to find out what's in the egg, and he jumps on it, rolls it down the hill, throws a rock at it.... His effort wears him out and he falls asleep, during which time the duck inside the egg hatches, sees the bunny and wonders at the sleeping bunny curled up alongside his shell.
The duck, in its turn, pokes and prods the bunny until the long-eared one awakens.
The two critters marvel at each other and what circumstances have brought them together--briefly, for they are very young. It is enough, they agree to accept each other and be friends. And no one was ever alone again. What a simply beautiful vision.
Click here for more about Brown's stories.
2 Comments
And then the duck looked around, and found the rock near the bunny, and saw the dents in the eggshell which perfectly matched the edges of the rock. There was rock debris all over the right paw of the bunny. The duck waited until the bunny awoke, then playfully tossed a small stone to the bunny, who caught it and playfully tossed it back - with its right paw!
ReplyDeleteThe duck walked all around the meadow until it came across a slimy lizard, lashing its tongue all over the place and looking just green. The duck explained about the bunny, the rock, the rock debris, the bunny's throwing arm, and the evidence of attempted breaking and entry of the eggshell.
The lizard took the case. Duck v. Bunny is now a classic in jurisprudence, and may become a three part miniseries.
The bunny, of course, said, "Man, that duck Bugs me!" and thus earned its nickname. The duck who brought a rather frivolous lawsuit was regarded as somewhat Daffy.
And the lawyer? Quit the law, and hired on as spokes-lizard for Geico.
Ah, the prequel and then the sequel, each reflecting the time in which it was written. Will we have them meet on some rooftop exactly a year from now for either a Sleepless in Seattle or Vertigo remake?
ReplyDeleteThanks for being here.