‘Times and Squares’
Whenever I walk in a London Street
I’m ever so careful to watch my feet;
And I keep within the squares,
And the masses of bears,
Who wait at the corners all ready to eat
The sillies who treads on the lines of the street,
Go back to their lairs
And say to them, ‘Bears,
Just look how I’m walking in all the squares!’
A.A Milne. When we were very young
A.A.Milne understood so much about the inner world of children and the power of magical thinking, Christopher Robin, as a representative of young children, could stop the bears from eating him as long as he avoided the lines between the paving stones. The bears in the poem stand for irrational fears of children. Everyone has their own particular ways of inducing a sense of security. Little habits and routines are woven into normal life so they go unnoticed. Just surviving in modern society is demanding and stressful enough. As well as all the external dangers and threats, there are the emotional ups and downs, the fears and anxieties.
