I pause suddenly while watering my flowers and ponder whether I have become my mother. But no, the situation has gone way beyond that: I have become Peter Rabbit’s mother. I am at this moment tending to pansies and alyssum that I have planted in a defunct wheelbarrow, and I am wearing a straw hat that might just be wide enough to pick up signals from outer space. That, and I am still wearing my apron, having forgotten to take it off when I made the transition from kitchen-y mode to garden-y mode.  

These observations started me on a mental bird-walk that ended with me sitting down and rereading, cover to cover, “The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter,” given to me many years ago by a book-loving aunt. The author of these stories, with her loving-yet-matter-of-fact style and her soothing watercolors, places a gentle sheen over the red-in-tooth-and-claw reality of the world and its inhabitants. I must confess that, as a mature lady rereading the stories of my childhood, I experienced some anxiety when Benjamin Bunny and Peter Rabbit were racing to rescue the Flopsy Bunnies from that grinning old badger.

Peter Rabbit and his family are probably Miss Potter’s most well-known characters, and I can identify with all of them. The mother, aka Mrs. Josephine Rabbit, worries about her children and tries to teach them how to be safe in the big wide world. Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail try to be good rabbits, because they know that good rabbits usually get a reward. Peter tries too, but he often falls short of the mark. And there is poor Farmer McGregor, who only wants to protect the garden that he has worked so hard to cultivate, and little Benjamin Bunny, who just wants to impress his cousin Peter.

The Rabbit family aside, Miss Potter invented many other characters, all of which echo in the human psyche in some way. Jemima Puddle-Duck might be described as a silly goose, but she is friendly and believes the best in everyone, even the “gentleman with sandy whiskers,” i.e., the fox, who invites her to dinner on what she believes to be neighborly grounds. Then there is Mr. Jeremy Fisher, who loves the rain and the water, but is utterly hopeless at fishing. (As a person who can tangle a fishing line just by walking into the same room with it, I can relate.) Some of my other favorite characters are Mrs. Tittlemouse, who just wants a clean house; Tom Kitten, who can’t stay out of trouble to save his life; and the Fierce Bad Rabbit, who needs no modifier. Who among us doesn’t have a “fierce bad rabbit” somewhere inside? And who can forget Anna Maria, the old woman rat? She is kind of scary, even right now.

I recently finished reading another book of a very different sort. This story, entitled Mockingbird, is set in a future dystopia, in which humanity has been forbidden to read; in fact, many people no longer even understand the concept of the written word. I’m thinking it might be a good idea for us to head this one off at the pass. Let’s read, and read, and read some more. I will if you will.

For your further edification:

Beatrix Potter | British author | Britannica

Mockingbird by Walter Tevis (goodreads.com

The saying ‘Red in tooth and claw’ – meaning and origin. (phrases.org.uk)