In Which Pooh Goes Analyzing

Gail pointed out that many of the nicknames in our "family blogs" have a decidedly Winnie the Pooh flavor. Yes, and I think there is a good reason for it. Pooh used to visit our house regularly. Some of us heard his little voice so much that we began to think of him as one of the family. It seems natural for us to give nicknames in his honor.

When the Bear was smaller (my son, not Pooh) he had a video collection of every single Winnie the Pooh cartoon that Disney marketed. Said videos played over and over again until they were worn to shreds! Or maybe I just reached the point where I couldn't take them anymore and they disappeared. I'm not sure anymore. But I think I can still sing every Pooh song word for word, and do sometimes on Fridays when the girls and I are practicing our repertoire of silly songs in the car.

Anyway, I think Bear's love for Pooh began in utero or soon after. Since Bear was the youngest of our four he shared a bedroom with the Princess, or at least he did after the whole "new baby in the house" thing had worn off enough that he no longer woke the whole family with his demands to be fed. Then he just woke me {groan} while everyone else pretended not to hear him.

Princess had a Winnie the Pooh bedroom decor and the new baby, boy or girl, had to go along with it. We should probably be thankful that her room wasn't done up in Barbie or some such other "girlie" thing at that time because the whole new-baby-in-the-house-and-budget thing didn't leave much money for redecorating. And we should also be glad that they got separate rooms before his sports memorabilia took over the walls! All's well that ends well, I'm told.

So when Bear got to be a toddler Pooh came to visit us so often via video that we began to notice personality traits among the characters. We would go so far as to judge a person's temperament by the Pooh characters. "Yes, he's definitely an 'Eeyore,'" we'd sagely say to each other about some acquaintance. Or, "definitely a Tigger." Remember Tim Lahaye's book about the temperaments? We'd found something we could actually understand! The temperaments for preschoolers and their parents a la Pooh!

A few months ago we were having breakfast with another pastor and wife. (Yes, breakfast. Occasionally I get out of bed before same. THIS was even on a Saturday morning before 9 a.m!) She was wearing a wonderful sweatshirt adorned with none other than Winnie the Pooh! I oohed and aahed over her attire.

Her husband, meanwhile, was rolling his eyes. I think he said something like, "Not another Pooh fan?!" This elicited many comments from all of us, including Pastor Dad who felt it his duty to introduce him to our temperaments-according-to-Pooh game. His wife knew immediately what we were talking about and took the opportunity to begin a round using some of our mutual friends as examples. Her husband was still somewhat confused, mainly because he is not as familiar with all of the personalities of the Pooh characters as we are, but he soon caught on.

All went well until we began analyzing each other. Whereas Pastor Dad and I always saw ourselves as the Christopher Robin and Kanga characters (the wise, mature child who takes care of everyone, and the mother-who-lovingly takes care of her home and child) our friends saw us as Owl and Rabbit (the know-it-all, and the always running-too-and-fro grouch).

Ouch! I don't think I want to play anymore! And I don't like breakfast anyway either, so there!

Now, pardon me but I'm leaving in a hurry because I've got to take Bear to basketball!