Max Arthur:Forgotten Voices of the Second World War
- Taschenbuch 2007, ISBN: 9780091897352
Gebundene Ausgabe
Health Communications Inc. Very Good. 5.5 x 0.69 x 7.5 inches. Hardcover. 2004. 200 pages. <br>Who wouldn't want to go back to when life was simp le and a stuffed animal could f… Mehr…
Health Communications Inc. Very Good. 5.5 x 0.69 x 7.5 inches. Hardcover. 2004. 200 pages. <br>Who wouldn't want to go back to when life was simp le and a stuffed animal could fix all your problems? Botox parti es. Extreme Makeovers. Reality TV. These are just some examples o f how we have lost sight of something so basic yet so essential t o true happiness: On our way to becoming status-seeking super-hum ans, we forgot how to be Real. This charming gift book guides re aders down a simple path to reclaiming joy, fulfillment and indiv iduality, using an unconventional source-the children's classic T he Velveteen Rabbit. By sharing the timeless insights and poignan t quotes from the popular children's book, the author identifies 10 keys to becoming Real, with the promise that when you become R eal you will love and be loved with all your strengths, weakness, faults and gifts. As the Skin Horse explains to the Velveteen Ra bbit: Real isn't how you are made . . . It's a thing that happen s to you. . . . Generally by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes droop and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But those things don't matter at all , because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people w ho don't understand. Destined to be a classic in its own right, The Velveteen Principles delivers a simple yet profound message for the ages. Key Features The charming and appealing format is similar to best-sellers like The Tao of Pooh. This book taps in to a much-beloved classic of children's literature-one that milli ons of parents loved as children and are now reading to their own children. Stories of real people, including the author, provide examples and anecdotes that readers will immediately relate to a nd recognize. Short 3-7 page sections create focus and great rea dability. An ideal gift book-with substance! Editorial Reviews Review Like The Tao of Pooh and The Gospel According to Peanuts , Toni Raiten-D'Antonio's new book, The Velveteen Principles draw s on well-known children's literature for inspiration. The author skewers the prevalent worldview that equates wealth, beauty, pub lic acclaim, power and popularity with happiness. True happiness, she says, only comes from being Real, and Real rarely means conf orming to the standards of the United States of Generica. Instead Raiten-D'Antonio extracts 12 principles for becoming real from t he charming children's classic, The Velveteen Rabbit . It begins with realizing that Real is Possible, confesses that Real Can Be Painful, and defines Real as Generous, Grateful, Flexible and Eth ical. Real, she insists, is a life well-lived, where we are true to ourselves, and all the struggles and challenges only make us m ore Real. -BookPage, December 2004 ... a surprisingly good explo ration of how meaning and principles can guide one's life and wor k. Psychotherapist Raiten-D'Antonio bases her explorations on the wisdom of Margery Williams's classic The Velveteen Rabbit. The a uthor encourages readers to become Real like the rabbit and the s kin horse by rejecting the superficiality and surface beauty so p revalent in the Generic State of America. Her work as a therapist informs and deepens her comprehension that becoming Real is the purpose of every kind of psychotherapy. ... -Library Journal Abo ut the Author Toni Raiten-D'Antonio, is a well-known psychotherap ist with a thriving private practice in Suffolk County, Long Isla nd. She is a professor of psychology and social work at Empire St ate College. Prior to becoming a therapist she worked in televisi on and theater as both a performer and producer. She has two daug hters and lives in New York with her husband, the Pulitzer Prize- winning writer Michael D'Antonio. Excerpt. ? Reprinted by permis sion. All rights reserved. Her husband, a white-haired man dress ed in khaki pants and a flannel shirt, was small, alert and quite fit. He had pushed her wheelchair with relative ease and then kn elt next to her. He pushed back the sleeve of his shirt, revealin g a very old tattoo of a buxom young woman - maybe it was Betty G rable - and stroked his wife's hair. As he adjusted the plastic t ubing for her oxygen supply, he spoke softly in his wife's ear. W hatever he said made her smile. As I peeked over my magazine I became strangely jealous. Here she was, at the end of her life, p hysically debilitated and struggling. But she was not shy or emba rrassed. Instead, she exuded a peaceful sense of certainty about who she was and her inherent value. It was clear that her husband adored her and cherished every moment they spent together. I con sidered his tattoo and thought of the time when he was young and probably quite obsessed with pretty women. And who knows, maybe h is wife was once the girl who had fulfilled his fantasy. But in t he moment I witnessed, what he loved was the true and essential p erson inside the body, the invisible beauty he may not have seen in younger years. In the weeks after seeing that couple in the d octor's office I struggled to understand why I had been so enviou s. I had a husband who loved me. I felt good about my work and ab out my two children, Amy and Elizabeth. But I felt, deep in my he art, there was something that older woman possessed that I wanted . It was there in her face, and in the way she interacted with he r husband, but I just couldn't name it. The answers we need oft en come to us at unpredictable moments and from surprising source s. This happened to me on a summer evening as I prepared dinner. I was in the kitchen, taking vegetables out of the refrigerator a nd grabbing pots and pans from the cupboard while my daughters sa t together reading on the sofa in the next room. Elizabeth, age s ix, was reading to two-year-old Amy. Amy had her favorite blanket in her hand, her best bear, Lauren, in her lap and her thumb in her mouth. Elizabeth's stuffed bear, Ted, was propped next to her . They had reached page sixteen of The Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams's story, which was one of their favorites. What is REAL asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. Does it m ean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle? R eal isn't how you are made, said the Skin Horse. It's a thing tha t happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time no t just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real. Does it hurt? Sometimes, said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. When you are Real you don't mind being hurt. Does it happen all at once, he asked, or bit by bit? It doesn't happen a ll at once, said the Skin Horse. You become. It takes a long time . That's why it doesn't happen to people who break easily, or hav e sharp edges or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and you r eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But those things don't matter at all, because once you are real y ou can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand. In the kitchen, I was suddenly flooded with emotion and understanding. T he Rabbit and the Skin Horse, I realized, were talking about the difference between superficial beauty and the kind of Real, inner beauty that we all possess as unique human beings. They were say ing that in a life well-lived, where we are true to ourselves, al l the struggles and challenges only make us more Real and more lo veable. Others can see this quality in us, and make us even more Real with their love and nurturing. At last I understood my reac tion to the older woman at my doctor's office. She was loose in t he joints. Her hair was thinning, and her clothes were shabby. Bu t she showed no anxiety, no shame, no worry. She accepted herself fully. She knew she was precious and irreplaceable. She was Real . She loved and accepted herself as a Real, and therefore imperfe ct, person. The scene at the doctor's office was made all the mo re poignant by the fact that the woman's Real value was clear to her husband as well. To him she could never be ugly, because she was simply herself. At a moment when anyone else might have been supremely self-conscious, he was so Real that he was almost caref ree. He had thoroughly overcome the superficial attitude reflecte d in his old tattoo and come to adore his wife for her deepest, i nner self. As the pages of The Velveteen Rabbit turn, the main characters teach us how to find the peace that comes when we focu s on what matters most in life: love, relationships, and empathy for ourselves and others. The Skin Horse is a wise and experience d elder who is generous with what he has learned. The Rabbit is, like all of us, insecure and searching for his place in the world , a place he eventually finds in a rather unexpected new life. As in so many children's books, the human beings in Margery Willi ams's tale are mostly oblivious to the intense drama affecting th e toys in the nursery. In this case, the little Velveteen Rabbit stays with his owner - the Boy - as he suffers through scarlet fe ver. When the Boy recovers, the doctor insists that the bunny - a mass of scarlet fever germs! - be replaced. Though the Rabbit is discarded, it is not the end of the story. As he lies in the yar d waiting to be burned with the trash, the Rabbit is transformed from a toy that was Real only to the Boy into an actual living cr eature who is Real for all to see. He hops off to live a splendid life with other Real rabbits, who become his friends. The words of the Skin Horse, who was wise, secure and content, are proven t rue. Being Real transforms us. Out in the living room, Elizabeth and Amy paused and looked at their own stuffed animals. Elizabet h's bear, Ted, was missing an eye. The white fur of Amy's bear wa s dingy gray. Its pink thread nose was a little ragged. The two s tuffed animals had both been loved so much, and so deeply, that t he girls agreed that they must be Real. What was so obvious to my young daughters - that you don't have to be perfect to be worthy - was a revelation to me. A Realistic Point of View Over the next few weeks I noticed that the message of The Velveteen Rabbi t had stirred some long-standing and painful feelings. Even thoug h my life was good, at least as other people might measure it, I didn't posses the confidence, the completeness, the self-awarenes s of that woman in the wheelchair. As a young woman, mother, wife and professional, I was filled with insecurity and self-doubt. E very day I wore the facade of being sure of myself, but deep insi de, I wasn't sure of anything. I wasn't completely Real. </div ., Health Communications Inc, 2004, 3, Crown Publishing Group. Very Good. 6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d). Paperback. 2007. 502 pages.<br>Taken from the archives of the Imperial War Museum and new voice recordings, this collection of audiobooks tells the real story of WWII from the men and women who were there. This b oxed set includes The Fight for Survival: September 1939-June 194 1; War at Sea and in the Air: July 1941-July 1943; War in the Med iterranean: July 1943-June 1944; and D-Day and Beyond: June 1944- May 1945. ., Crown Publishing Group, 2007, 3<
