Two years ago on my birthday, our neighbours Tap and Di gave me a hand crafted plaque with the inscription, “AN OLD BEAR LIVES HERE …WITH HIS HONEY.” Tap is a gifted artisan and I greatly value the gesture. To this day the plaque reminds me of the time when our children Jeremy and Vivian were age 5 and 7. At bedtime, Linda read for them a chapter from A.A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh.” Invariably there were bursts of delighted laughter and many exclamations of surprise. The children are adults now and have families of their own. For Linda and me the memories linger, with more than a touch of nostalgia. Now another birthday is looming on the horizon, and last week Linda and I again read the story.

At the outset of the narrative, we are introduced to the Hundred Aker Wood, an environment uncluttered by television, computers, the internet or hectic social lives. Pooh, his special friend Christopher Robin, Piglet, Rabbit, Owl, Kanga and Roo, are blithely unaware of the larger world beyond the wood.

We find Pooh, frequently referred to by his friends as “a bear of little brain,” sitting at the foot of a tree with his head between his paws, trying to think. “That buzzing noise must mean something,” he says, “The only reason I know for making a noise like that is because you’re a bee. The only reason I know of for being a bee is making honey. And the only reason for making honey is so I can eat it.” Pooh’s thought processes are pretty basic, often centred on obtaining honey. In this case he borrows a balloon from Christopher Robin and it lifts him to the top of a tree where the bees are. One stings him and he decides these are the wrong kind of bees, and they probably make the wrong kind of honey. Having not thought about how he and the balloon would descend, he remains suspended near the top of the tree. Finally he asks Christopher Robin to shoot a hole in the balloon with his gun. Christopher Robin does this and Pooh floats slowly to the ground.

Although Pooh is a bear with little brain, at times he is very practical, even insightful. When he visits Eeyore, the donkey who lives in a corner of the wood where there is an abundance of thistles, he notices his friend is gloomier than usual. Hoping to discern why Eeyore is so sad he says, “Let’s have a look at you.” He walks around him, then says, “Why, what’s happened to your tail? It isn’t there!” Eeyore had not been aware of this and thought Pooh must be mistaken. Pooh tells him, “Either a tail is there or it isn’t there. You can’t miss it. You can’t make a mistake about it, and yours isn’t there.”

Eeyore, a chronic pessimist says, “Somebody must have taken it. How Like Them.” Wanting to help his friend, Pooh sets out for Owl’s place. “If anyone knows anything about anything,” he says to himself, “it’s Owl.” Fortunately he does find the tail and when Christopher Robin has nailed it on in its right place again, Eeyore frisks about the forest.

Pooh’s love for “a little something” at times creates a dilemma from which only Christopher Robin can deliver him. This happens when he squeezes through the narrow burrow into Rabbit’s home. Here he accepts Rabbit’s offer of honey and milk. He indulges enthusiastically and when he attempts to exit through the narrow opening of the burrow, he gets stuck and cannot move forward. “Oh bother,” he says. “I shall have to go back,” but he can’t move.

Rabbit fetches Christopher Robin who says, “Silly old Bear” in such a loving voice that everybody feels quite hopeful again. He declares, “There’s only one thing to be done. We shall have to wait for you to get thin again. That will take about a week, I should think. I’m afraid no meals, because of getting thin quicker, but we will read to you.” So, for a week Pooh grows thinner and then Christopher Robin says “Now.” He and Rabbit pull and all of rabbit’s friends and relations pull. Suddenly Pooh says, “Pop!” and he’s ejected like a cork out of a bottle. That’s Winnie the Pooh, more able to relieve pandemic anxiety than a session with a psychiatrist.