Telegram and Letters

As if on cue, all of the carefree summer days come to an abrupt end.  There isn’t anything today that could quite compare with the telegram.  For middle class families at the time and probably most wealthy families, a telegram might as well have been the grim reaper.  If it wasn’t urgent, it was written in a letter.  If it was urgent, it was probably life threatening in some way.  I’m sure they were used in the business world, but I doubt there were happy feelings associated with receiving a telegram.  Hannah’s comment as she delivers it sums it all up.  “It’s one of them horrid telegraph things, mum.”  As soon as the word telegraph crossed her lips, I’m sure everyone in the room stopped in their tracks.  Having all of the immediate family safe at home and receiving it is one thing, but getting one when the head of the household is at war is quite another.  The flurry of activity afterward is incredible.  The way the girls rally together and get their mother off.  The generosity and support of friends and neighbors is overwhelming.  The Marches felt their embrace of Laurie was a small matter, but to Mr. Laurence it meant the world.  Every time the March family falls on hard times, he is doing whatever he can to lighten their load. 

The most beautiful sacrifice, of course, is Jo’s.  She has to do something for her father and acts before reality sets in.  That’s usually how I have to sacrifice or ‘fess.  The point where you see how deep a sacrifice it was is when she cries to herself at night over the loss.  Some may think it trivial, but that was her one beauty.  For all of her boyishness, she was still feminine after all and the loss of the one thing about her that was beautiful and comfortable to her was gone.   It doesn’t change you if you don’t feel the loss. 

The Marches loved Laurie, but the good they did for him was not much of a sacrifice to them.  Yes, it meant so much to Laurie, but I’m not sure the act of the “sacrifice” changed the Marches.  Their relationship with Laurie changed them but not the fact that they gave their time and attention to him.  But when the sacrifice causes a sense of loss to the giver it changes the giver profoundly.

One more comment on the night before Marmee goes to nurse her husband.  The pillars of inner strength always seem to be the quiet inward and shy among us.  It is so fitting that Beth is the one who gets all the way through her father’s favorite hymn.

Dreams and Secrets

This is our first glimpse of the tempest that is brewing in Laurie.  He’s been a booger bear all day (probably because he hadn’t learned the same lesson the girls did in their experiment).  Then he worms his way into the Busy Bee Society.  (This is another time that I would want to be a March girl.  They always find a way to make drudgery fun.)  Then we find out that what he really wants to do is be a concert pianist, not an merchant like his grandfather.  Thenn we have each one telling what they would do if they could choose.  It ends with a poignant moment, Laurie peeping in on his grandfather as he is listening to Beth play and resolving to stay with the dear old gentleman while he is needed.  Both books I have seen illustrate this moment.  It is very touching and tells so much of Laurie.  In the previous chapter, Brooke’s part of the story has a knight taming a wild, but beloved colt.  I think he is referring to Laurie as the colt and himself as the knight.  It seems to be Laurie’s character, full of mischief and spirit, but loyal, very loyal.

Hope I’m not ruining anything for anyone, but Laurie has caught on the romance developing between Mr. Brooke and Meg.  This is his secret with Jo.  What a great way to write this!  She just kind of hints around it and if the reader is romantically minded, as I am, he/she has already noticed certain things brewing and now has real proof that Brooke is in love with Meg.  However, Alcott goes about it in such a sneaky way that the reader gets to guess, because at this point the secret is still only between Jo and Laurie.  We have not officially been informed.  It’s great writing.  We do get a wonderful satisfaction with Jo’s secret.  The whole family celebrates at the telling of this one.  I’m not sure I’ve ever felt that way.  No, yes I have.  Although, my realization of a little dream was not as long dreamed as Jo’s.  I had always wanted to be the lead in a play.  I had been in a play in middle school and when I entered high school, thought this would be my opportunity.  The first two years straight plays were done as the ”drama teacher” didn’t feel very capable and only casted people she knew to be somewhat artistic.  She only did cold readings although you could arrange to borrow the script beforehand.  Needless to say, I didn’t do very well and never was cast.  Then my junior year we had a real actor as the drama teacher.  He prepared sides and music before the auditions.  I had the parts memorized.  The auditions were gruelling and one girl and I had to stay very late and sing extra stuff.  I ended up being cast as the lead for the Saturday and Friday night preformances and the other girl was the lead for the Thursday and matinee preformances.  It was thrilling.  I was on cloud nine the enitre rehearsal period.  I really enjoy theatre; I just don’t have the personality for it.  That’s why it’s so much fun to be an actor’s wife and get to be around it.      

Summer Days

So we have the elder March girls finding themselves without occupation for a little while just as summer begins.  Glorious!  And all they want to do is nothing but amuse themselves.  Once again, let us take notes from Marmee on parenting techniques.  Sometimes the best way to teach what should not be done is to let the children do it.  Here the March girls learn that a little work and a little play each day is the best way to be happy.  I completely agree.  Although I haven’t exactly been playing during this time of unemployment, I have felt rather aimless.  I do much better when focused on a task or job and then allowed some time to rest.  Marmee rounds out the little experiment with a dose of extra duties.  Then Jo triples her portion by having a dinner party.  This is another time that you just have to love Laurie.  He is so sweet to manfully eat the salted strawberries floating in soured cream.  Especially after having worried down the earlier courses.  I wasted lots of summers by swimming in out pool and then coming inside and watching TV.  I didn’t even both to take off the wet suit.  I would just dry in the sun enough that I could sit on a towel on the floor in the living room.  Probably one of the best summers was when I could walk across the big road to another development where a lady from church lived and help her watch her three boys.  We had some much fun!  I felt useful and enjoyed playing with the boys.  It’s always better when you are doing something worthwhile for someone else.  Another little side note.  I heard once that Louisa May Alcott’s parents were part of a Utopia-style commune.  This little lesson about helping to care for each other and taking a little time for yourself seems to lean towards lessons she may have learned during that time.

Then we have Camp Laurence and our first real hints of the romance budding between Meg and Mr. Brooke.  Delicious.  It’s sweet to see how he is obviously smitten, she is oblivious, but admires him and total strangers recognize what is going on before the pair do.  Remind you of any certain campaign, Allen?  I also like the storyline with Fred cheating at croquet and how Jo handles herself.  And what could be more adorable than Beth befriending a dreadful boy.  All in all these two chapters are delightful. 

Fancy and Fun

Poor Meg.  Here’s another time where we share similarities.  She knows she shouldn’t do it.  She knows her friends are not being kind although they may think they are and yet she lets them make a fool of her.  Even after she is completely convinced that she is in the wrong and is confronted by Laurie, she continues to behave unbecomingly.  She has been longing for that world and wants to try it out.  Even after she realizes it’s not good for her she continues.  So much like me.  I have a hard time letting go of things like that. 

Of course, Marmee comes through with a wonderful “lecture” at the end.  I need to take parenting tips from Marmee.

Then we have the secret society.  I was never involved in a secret club.  Although a friend and I started a babysitter’s club one summer.  I think she was inspired by the books.  Anyway, it was short lived.  By fall we had stopped meeting.  I love Laurie!  He’s fun, mischevious and yet proper and full of manners.  It’s a great combination.  I kind of feel like this is our little post office.  Unfortunately, we can’t send the things we would really like to send (i.e. ourselves).

Poor Amy

Amy goes through some rough times in these chapters.  The best part is Marmee’s advice.  What a gentle and influential confidant!  She reminds me a lot of Momma June and Mom.  I wonder if Amy was pushing so hard to go to the play because of her recent turmoil over the limes.  It seemed she was trying to prove herself or demand respect that she may not have deserved, some sort of backlash from the valley of humiliation.

Here I identify with Jo.  I didn’t always have a problem with my temper.  In fact, I don’t remember flying off the handle at all in college or shortly thereafter.  Recently though it surfaced and at times seems uncontrollable.  It may be my working environment having a bad effect on me.  Litigation is stressful and anger seemed to come with the territory.  Whatever started it up, I don’t like it.  Marmee’s advice to Jo cut to my heart.  I haven’t been seeking help from the right source or in the right way.  I need to work on that.  My temper doesn’t manifest itself quite like Jo’s.  It comes up quickly, but I don’t relish seeing people hurt.  Right now Aria sparks my temper more than anything.  Although I’m able to keep it in check for the most part I don’t like to see her hurting.  I just want her to show a little remorse.  It’s when she seems unaffected by discipline that I get really irritated.  Which makes sense to some degree.  If the discipline is ignored it’s not accomplishing the goal of curbing the behavior. 

I identify with Marmee a lot, too.  You’ve always helped me/corrected me in this area, but it’s harder now that you are away.  Like I said, I haven’t tapped into God’s power enough to gain gentleness and self-control.  I need to work on that.  Pray for me.

I love you and miss you, too. 

The Laurences Young and Old

Once again these are a great couple of chapters!  What beautiful friendships develop from the willingness of one to step out and be neighborly.  My first year of college I was really good at this.  I have always been on the shy side.  For some reason freshman year I decided to strike up a conversation with everyone and anyone.  It was amazing the number of friends I made that year, and such a variety of people.  As time went on I got clichey and did not step out as much.  What a mistake.  I need to get back into that mindset.  That’s really all it is, a mindset.  It’s being more aware of someone else’s sense of awardness or shyness than your own.  It’s putting someone else’s comfort above your fear of rejection. 

Here we see two approachs.  Jo is bold and energetic, which is exactly the approach Laurie needs.  A lasting friendship is formed and shared with his relative and hers.  After a failed attempt, Mr. Laurence learns that another approach is needed for Beth.  She is completely overwhelmed by his gruff nature.  To remedy this, he offers her exactly what she wants in such a round about manner that it appears she will be doing him a favor by accepting and be able to do it anonymously.  This is pure Beth, helping without being seen.  She thrives on it. 

I love the relationship between Mr. Laurence and Beth.  So unexpected and yet so perfect.  The gruff old man and the sweet shy little girl.  It’s almost what musicals are made of.  It also makes me think of talking to my Uncle Jack.  Uncle Jack was a character, to say the least.  He was somewhat gruff, but with a huge twinkle in his eye.  His wife was the most generous woman ever to walk the earth.  The kind you could not enter a store with.  She would buy you anything you looked at or touched.  He often scolded her for giving people things and doing to much.  Not because of the cost, he would tell her to quit bothering everyone and just be still for a minute.  He was a little too gruff for me at times.  I didn’t quite know what to make of him.  But one day at Momma June’s cabin, we both were fishing on the walkway to the boathouse.  It was a little uncomfortable and I didn’t want to seem rude so I started talking to him.  I chattered on and on about choir and music and I don’t know what else.  He occasionally said “hmm” or something equally non-committal.  I was sure he was bored to death, but trying to be polite and not hurt my feelings.  Later, Momma June told me he had throughly enjoyed the conversation and thought I was a fine young lady.  Shocker!  Ever since, I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for him. 

The Big Party and the Day After

Yes, you’ll hear this every time, but this is one of my favorite chapters.  Laurie is one of the best characters of the book and what an introduction.  He is so thoughtful, kind and lively, a true gentleman.  He keeps finding ways of providing for the girls without them feeling like charity cases.  He is an absolute servant, literally, and yet is full of interesting stories and witty comments.  I would love to be Meg at the party, but would probably end up being Jo.  That’s one place where Meg and I part company.  I was never popular and really didn’t mind that much.  Like Jo, I usually ended up meeting very interesting people who were just as shy or unpopular as me.  At this particular party, it would be great to be asked to dance immediately and spend most of the night twirling in my pretty dress.  Aria, our daughter, would like that part, too. 

Grammy was Meg to my Jo.  She always wanted me to be a lady and tried her hardest to convince me to be proper.  It didn’t work extremely well.  Once when I was four or five she was “training” me and asked. “Don’t you want to be a lady?”  I said, “No.”  It didn’t stop her from trying.

Ah, the morning after.  Cinderella has been to the ball and wakes up in the morning realizing she will have to toil all day long.  It’s a rude awakening.  It’s less than a week since the girls determined to be good and not complain.  Less than a week from their object lesson of the Hummels and already they are feeling sorry for themselves.  Again, so like me.  It seems every resolve I have only takes a few days, or hours, to lose all its resolution.  We get a closer look at the girls through their burdens.  I have seen others everyday so seem to have so much that you would like and yet don’t have the happiness you may enjoy, like Meg.  I have wanted so badly to have the opportunity or stamina to produce great music like Beth.  I am horribly spoilt and selfish, like Amy.  One line of a descriptionof Jo fits me:  “Jo’s ambition was to do something splendid; what it was she had no idea, as yet, but left if for time to tell her; . . . “  Everyone probably feels that way.  Don’t know what the something splendid is but, hopefully, time will tell.  I’m not very content with waiting at the moment.  So, you see there is a little of each of the girls in me.  Although more Beth would be great.  Sadly, I don’t have Beth’s nuturing quiet spirit.  Momma June was a Jo.  Quick witted, always good for a laugh (typically with a moral) and a tomboy, her tongue tended to be faster than her judgment at times.  By the time I came along she pretty much had slowed her tongue down to judgment speed, but you could tell it wasn’t natural and had taken years of practice.

Pilgrims and Christmas

I really love this book.  It does have a certain prim or proper feel to it, but it doesn’t come off white-washed or fake to me.  It’s a picture of a loving family that is genuinely happy.  Yes, they squabble and fight, differences in temperments and personalities clash;  but, underneath it all they love each other.  I love the way Alcott writes in little details that remind you of each girl’s personality.  My favorite part of this chapter is the description of the girls and their reactions during the reading of their father’s letter.  The fact that Jo would sit behind the chair so that no one would see her crying is telling of her character.  The little detail of Amy not minding the rumpling of her curls when she cries on her mother’s shoulder, reminds me how stirred she is by the words her father writes.  It’s such a sweet opening.  What a beautiful picture of a home full of love, even if the family is somewhat broken at the moment.

The next chapter is about their Christmas celebration.  In the first chapter the girls have been told that there will be no stockings or christmas presents this year due to the war, but they are promised one little gift under their pillows that will help them be good.  At first they want to buy treats for themselves with the little money each of them has, but in the end they decide to honor their mother by buying presents for her with their money.  In this chapter we discover why the girls have such a change of heart.  Their mother is a perfect example of the golden rule.  This moment probably means more to me now that I am a mother than when I first read it.  Marmee doesn’t just send Hannah with food for the Hummels and have a nice Christmas breakfast with her daughters.  She comes home and asks the girls if they will share their breakfast.  I’m so thankful for the moment of hesitation from the girls.  I always hesitate when faced with an opportunity to sacrifice.  The girls happily pack up their breakfast and sacrifice it to the Hummels.  They all go and sit with the children and look them in the eye.  How much more would we give if we gave like this!  It reminds me of my dad.  He never asked us to give up a meal, but he was always doing for others.  He would pick up hitchhikers with us in the car and give money to those who would ask.  It was always a teaching tool.  He would talk to us about how we may not know if this person will use the money wisely, but you should still do what you can to help them.  I don’t feel like I live up to that legacy.  I’ve heard some amazing stories from family friends about how my dad had replaced the starter in their car and refused to accept money for parts or my mom had taken over meals for them.  I want to give when its inconvenient. 

The Christmas play is awesome!!  Did you enjoy it, Allen?  It reminds me of when we were young and used to put on shows for our parents.  I wonder if Matt remembers doing that.  Don’t ask me what they were about, but they were funny.  Mom and Dad laughed a lot.  Grammy probably loved this part.  She liked historical romances.  Jo is quite the little Shakespeare.

The night ends with a surprise.  Word gets around about the sacrificed breakfast and a kindly old gentleman sends treats and hothouse bouquets to the girls.  Marmee’s last line is one of the sweetest, “They are lovely!  But Beth’s roses are sweeter to me.”  Things that come from a loved one are always dearer.  Beth’s comment about sending hers to father made me misty.  Aria would love to send you some barbeque, Allen.  We miss you so much!!