The Tao of Pooh

I know this is supposed to be a baseball card blog, but it is my blog and I feel like posting a book review. To be perfectly honest, it really is not a book review. I am not a reader at all; nor am I a writer, an airplane pilot, doctor, lawyer, professional athlete or anything really worthy of anything. I am however a self-proclaimed Winnie the Pooh "aficionado".

That's right I like Winne the Pooh and all of his friends in the hundred acre wood forest. Winnie after all is the Bear with very little Brain and I can relate to that.

The book I now have read several times (ok I know what you are thinking but it IS a book for "adults") is titled The Tao of Pooh written by Benjamin Hoff. Hoff also wrote a second book called the Te of Piglet which is a natural continuation of the understanding of the connection between Taoism and Winnie the Pooh and his friends.

Hoff takes us on a journey that each of us can relate to. In actuality we all possess personality qualities of Pooh and all his friends; some more dominant than others and in understanding the basis for each of those traits we find a better understanding of ourselves.

Some of the Chapters are titled: The How of Pooh, Spelling Tuesday, The Pooh Way and Nowhere and Nothing. Who can pass up a book with chapters like that.

The back cover of the book sums it up perfectly; ". . . in which it is revealed that one of the world's great Taoist masters is not Chinese or a venerable philosopher, but is in fact none other that that effortlessly calm, still, reflective bear; A A Milne Winnie the Pooh".

". . . while Eeyore frets . . and Piglet hesitates, Rabbit calculates, and Owl pontificates . . . Pooh just is". To the right is a poem written to help you find your way.

I recommend everyone finding a copy, reading this book and finding out how closely each of you resembles one of thee characters. For me I am a mixed up combination of Piglet, Rabbit and Pooh.

Thanks to all for reading my blog and allowing me to review this book.

a third time

For the third time in three years my beautiful daughter is off on an adventure.

Two August's ago she embarked on the Rotary Youth Exchange program and headed to Finland (yes Finland) for ten months. Upon returning home last summer she then went off to start her college life (freshman year) at Flagler College in St Augustine Florida. While both of those experiences were positive (and not so positive) in many ways, my daughter was craving something different . . . again.

Just the other day she left again, for Chicago, our old home town, to attend Columbia College and pursue her creative writing aspirations. I wish her the very best in everything, am so proud of her and look forward to visiting her and taking her to a Cubs game.

Below you will find a song sung by Winnie the Pooh to Piglet that I have now sent my daughter three years in a row. Maybe this year it will inspire her to be "big" !

You can be a guiding star,
If you make the most of Who You Are.
And the sensitivity,
That you are now discovering to see
Can be developed even more,
So you can find the hidden doors
To places no one’s been before.
And the pride you’ll feel inside
Is not the kind that makes you fall -
It’s the kind that recognizes
The bigness found in being Small
as Pooh sings about Piglet in The Te of Piglet pg 51

and 40 years ago the hobby was . . .

. . . much much simpler, to put in mildly. I live by the Winnie-the-Pooh philosophy of "simple brain, simple things"and today's hobby literally overwhelms me.


As so many of the baseball card collecting world is focused on the "new" cards of 2009 (and as I understand the over 300 different sets and subsets to collect), I am resisting all temptation to "get with the times" and am saving my money (as little as that might be these days) to supplement my "vintage" collection.

40 years ago, collecting cards was "pure" . . . little investment required, tremendous joy in finding stars and non-stars and the games we played with these cards. There were no Walmarts or Targets to rush to, no card shops to hound, just the local five and dime to head to after school on our bicycles. The joy we found in opening up packs of cards back then is the same joy felt today by so many . . . however . . .

We played the popular flipping games, competed in "how many cards can we fit in our bicycle spokes" and calculated trades with friends. My best friend back in those days was a White Sox fan and we spent hours trying to make trades that were "fair". We compared batting averages, homeruns, doubles, and triples; era's, strikeout to walk ratios and wins vs losses record. We made trades "fair" based on production on the field not monetary value. Such a idyllic thing to do.

Those were the days . . . here are my favorite Cubs from 1969 . . . just to help me remember the "good ol' days" . . . .

So in fairness, I still "play" with my cards, though "play" now includes, page protectors, top loaders, and blogging.

Above are the three Chicago Cub Hall of Famers (from "those days"), the three backbones of the Cubs from the late sixties and early seventies, the three Cubs who stood tall amongst the rest.

I am still testing my resistance levels . . . 40 years ago life (baseball and card collecting) was so different . . .