I thought the Tao of Pooh was a cute way of understanding Taoism. Some of my favorite comparisons between Taoism and Winnie the Pooh are: Wu Wei and Pooh’s way of life, and explaining how Cleverness and Academics (Rabbit and Owl, respectively) are not the best ways to reach solutions or live life. Wu Wei and Pooh’s way always seem to result in a beneficial result or outcome. I found that when I have practiced Wu Wei without actually knowing I was doing so, things seemed to always work out. I am the kind of person who will often “go with the flow” or play things by ear, and I don’t usually make plans (mostly because I am terrible at keeping them). When I live my life this way, I notice that good things happen. This could also be because without making plans, I have less of a chance of being disappointed if they don’t work out or go as I thought. Pooh does this too, and I imagine so do many Taoists. On the other hand, Rabbit and Owl’s ways of life are similar to many Americans’. Rabbit thinks he’s clever and always tries to come up with a plan (which ends up not working), and Owl thinks he’s really smart but he really doesn’t have much intelligence at all. When they try to outthink the problems that situations present, they only cause more trouble.
There were some parts of the book that I didn’t like very much, though. When the author described all Americans as “Busy Backsons” and implied that our way of life is inferior, I got a little offended. I agreed with what he was saying, how it’s bad that people rush through life and waste time by trying to save time, instead of enjoying the moment they’re in (108). But I still felt like his tone was really offensive. Not all Americans are like that, and a lot of people do take the time to enjoy life. His juxtaposition of American society to Taoist societies clearly put down American society and marked it as inferior. I think a lot of Americans could find value out of Taoist practices, but saying “your way of life is terrible, do it this way” isn’t the best way to get that message across, in my opinion.
I agree that Pooh's way was definitley the Way to live because there's no stress and things are viewed as "supposed to be". Everything is how it should be is a pretty good way to view life. I also like to live life similar to Pooh, but sometimes it's not so easy because of outside infulences. The main thing I have to agree with was definitely the tone that the author used to formulate his opinions of Americans and non-Taoist people. He used not be so harsh and it kind of pushes people back from what he's trying to say and makes them feel inferior. Nice read :)
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