I love this quote. It is from the book "The Velveteen Rabbit." This one is for Lisa and Ethan...
"What is real?" asked the Rabbit one day when they were lying side by side. "Does it mean hearing things that buzz inside you and a stick out handle?"
"Real isn't how you're 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? Or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once. You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen to things who break easily, or have sharp edges, or 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 at the joints...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."
