”Can I ask you something?”
If you could invite one fictional character to dinner…who would you choose? It sounds like an easy question, at first. Right?
My mind immediately started filling with detectives, wizards, adventurers and heroes. But the more I realised I wasn’t looking for someone exciting… I was looking for someone peaceful. Someone who wouldn’t spend the evening talking about themselves. Someone who wouldn’t mind if dinner lasted three hours because the conversation was simply too lovely to end.
And somehow…while thinking about who would be the perfect guest, I kept coming back to Winnie the Pooh.
Not because he’d tell extraordinary stories. Quite the opposite, in fact. I think he’d remind me how extraordinary ordinary life already is. I imagine he’d arrive slightly late. Not because he’d forgotten, but because he had to stop to watch a butterfly, or because he helped Eeyore find something he’d misplaced. Or because he discovered a particularly interesting cloud.
He’d apologise. Smile, then ask if there was honey for dessert. I don’t think Pooh would ask something like ”So…what do you do?”. I think he’d want to know what made me smile on the day. And that feels like a better question.
We spend so much time of our lives trying to impress each other. Talking about careers, achievements, plans… Perhaps we’d all be happier if we talked a little more about favourite mugs, good books, dogs and coffee, the smell of fresh bread, the colour of the sky before sunset or sunrise. Maybe, that’s why Pooh has survived generations. He quietly reminds us that life isn’t measured by how much we have accomplished. It’s measures by how much we notice things.
Dinner would probably end exactly as it began. Slowly, comfortably with one last cup of tea. And I would leave thinking that someone people don’t make us want to become more successful. They make us want to become kinder. And I think, that’s the better gift.
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