Recent conversations of old age...this one reminds me of Ralph.

"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 mean
having things that buzz inside you and a stick-our handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made,"  said the Horse.  "It's a thing that happens
to you.  When a child loves you fro a long, long time, not just to play
with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Horse, for he was always truthful.  "When you are
Real, you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by
bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Horse.  "You become.  It takes a
long time.  That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily,
or have 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 your eyes drop
out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby.  But these things don't
matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people
who don't understand."

The Velveteen Rabbit
By Margery Williams

Best,
Leland

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