Bit of a jump from Wilko Johnson (my previous post) to Winnie the Pooh - but maybe not as big as it seems.
Hat-tip to Karen for reminding me of a couple of gems from the bear/unwitting philosopher:
"Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known."
"I used to believe in "forever," but "forever" is too good to be true."
"Don't underestimate the value of doing nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."
Side-stepping the whole Pooh industry and its Disneyfication, here is a mindful view of the world, I think. A mindful moment on the bridge, an acceptance of the transitory nature of all things, an emphasis on the here and now in order to avoid the tyranny of The Next Thing...this Bear has more Brain than he realises, or rather, simply more insight into the flow of life.
And Wilko, facing a life-shortening illness, tells us how precious every moment is. After he was diagnosed and given a prognosis:
"And now, suddenly, nothing mattered...and I realised: you are alive and you are existing in the moment. You're not worried about the tax return. And it's a bloody good feeling, being alive. Sometimes this feeling is almost ecstatic, and I can say that I haven't plunged into despair at all."
(from the Guardian's interview with Wilko, published last Saturday, here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/feb/02/wilko-johnson-interview?INTCMP=SRCH
I salute the bear and the rocker, with thanks for their insights. I hope that, as he watches Orion and looks for Saturn through his rooftop telescope, Wilko enters the state of being which he knows everything there is to be known. I think we all do, if we give it a chance.
(It must, however, be said that Pooh was a pretty useless guitar player, whereas Wilko's the business!)
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