slapdash #6: velveteen

this is a quote from the short story "the velveteen rabbit:" that made me cry:




"Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that
happens to you. When a child loves you for 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 Skin 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 Skin Horse. 'You become. It
takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often 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."
— Margery Williams Bianco (The Velveteen Rabbit)