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What is Real?
by Glen Draeger

Hello Real Velveteen Readers,

I don't know about you but after reading The Velveteen Rabbit I had some questions. Now usually I just wait for Professor Higginbottom to contact me, which means I shrink down to the size of mouse when I least expect it. However, these questions were really bothering me so I didn't want to wait.

I know where the entrance to the Professor's library is so I pulled out my desk, got down on my hands and knees and placed my mouth right up to the small hole that serves as the doorway to Professor Higginbottom's Library located in the walls of my house.

"Professor Higginbottom! Professor Higginbottom!" I yelled. Nothing happened. I yelled even louder. "Professor Higginbottom!! Professor Higginbottom!!" Still, nothing happened. This time I decided to yell as loud as I have ever, ever yelled in my entire, entire life. I breathed in the biggest breath of air I have ever breathed in my whole, whole life, closed my eyes and yelled, "PROFESSOR HIGGINBOTTOM!!!! PROFESSOR HIGGINBOTTOM!!!!"

"Really," a voice said that came from far above my head, "must you yell so loudly in the library?"

When I opened my eyes I was once again as small as a mouse and above me the Professor stood with his hands over his little, pink ears which when you are as small as I was look like big, pink ears. We walked into the library's foyer.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I just have some questions that are bothering me."

"Really?" he asked.

"That's funny you should say 'really' because that's what I want to ask you about. Have you read The Velveteen Rabbit?"

"Of course," he replied. "Everyone here has."

"So have I," said Professor Jitmiggle sitting behind his tuna can desk.

"Really?" I asked.

"Really," he replied.

"I didn't realize that," I said.

"Really?" Professor Higginbottom asked.

"Really," I replied.

"What is it you want to know?" the Professor asked.

"It's about being real. The rabbit asks, 'What is REAL?' I didn't understand the Skin Horse's answers. I'm real, right?"

"That depends what you mean by that," Professor Higginbottom said. "Touch yourself."

"What?" I asked.

"Just touch yourself."

I touched my arm, then my nose, then my hair, then my tongue and lastly I touched my little toe on the very, very tip, tip, tippy.

"Did that feel real?" the Professor mouse asked me.

"Yes," I said slowly. "So real is something you can touch?"

"Partly," the Professor said. "Think for a minute."

That was easy to do. I thought about my dogs, I thought about my son, I thought about a big bowl of ice cream with hot fudge, almonds and whipped cream and then I thought about how I could get that big bowl of ice cream with hot fudge, almonds and whipped cream and then I thought that I was feeling really, really hungry and then the Professor spoke to me.

"Are your thoughts real?" he asked.

"I really think so," I said, "but they don't taste good."

Professor Higginbottom laughed. "There is a famous man, Rene Descartes, who once wrote, 'I think, therefore I am.' In Latin it is, 'Cogito, ergo sum.' He was saying that you know you are real because you are thinking, because you are having thoughts. If you weren't real—you wouldn't know you were thinking."

"I think I really understand that."

"Really?" the Professor asked me.

"Really."

"That's one kind of reality," the Professor continued.

"Uh oh," I said. "What's 'reality'?"

"It's like 'real' too. 'Reality' is the way things really are. There are real things that you can touch, like the very tip, tippy of your little toe and there are real things that you can't touch, like your thoughts."

"Hmmmm. What do people mean when they say, 'She's a real person'?"

"That's a different way to use 'real.' That kind of 'real' means 'truthful' or 'genuine.' It means that people tell you or show you who they really are. For example, if your favorite ice cream is vanilla ice cream and someone asks you what your favorite ice cream is and you say 'vanilla,' then you are being are real person."

"What if I say 'chocolate chip'?"

"Then you are saying something about yourself that is not true which means you are not being 'real.' I think," said Professor Higginbottom as he removed his glasses, "that this is one of the 'realities' that the Skin Horse is talking about in The Velveteen Rabbit."

"Why does he say that it hurts to become real?" I asked.

"Because sometimes it's hard to tell people the truth about ourselves. We might feel embarrassed or afraid of what people might think of us. What if all your friends like the color blue, but your favorite color is purple and what if your friends say that purple is a stupid color. Would you tell them that purple is your favorite color?"

"Would they laugh at me?" I asked.

"They might."

"If I want to be a real person then I would tell them purple is my favorite color?"

"Yes."

"Really? Is that why the Skin Horse says becoming real 'doesn't happen all at once . . . You become. It takes a long time'?"

"That's part of it, but it also takes a long time to discover the things you like—to discover who you really are. That's part of growing up—learning what you like is part of being and becoming a real person."

"Wow!" I said. "That's really cool."

"Really?"

"Really," I said.

"I'm glad you realized that," the Professor said.

"Really?" I asked.

"Really. I'm real glad," Professor Higginbottom replied.

"That's real cool."

"You really ought to get out of here," the Professor said, "because in about five seconds you are going to return to your real size."

"Really?"

"Really!! Now get out of here!" the Professor yelled.

I ran out the entrance of the library and into my den and just as suddenly as I had shrunk I expanded into my real self. And that's how it really happened. Really!!

Regards,

Mr. Draeger