little women

i've been rereading this book, my childhood favorite. wow, what lessons there are to be learned from this wise little book! i don't know how many find this book as heartwarming as i do but little women has always been such a "blue sky" read for me. i often find myself reflected in the charecter of jo. watching this character struggle with her temper and her place in life is such an aid to me, where i'm at today. i can totally relate to jo's disposition of being clumsy and inappropriate despite all her efforts to simply be loved. i've always identified with her in being the 2nd of four girls, odd and obstanant, and boyish and strong. the other charecters were always such a comical picture of my sisters to me. meg being jess, getting married early and mothering obsessively. beth being ky, sweet and kind, everyone's favorite, and always knowing the right thing to do to help. and then amy as vannah, mostly just the big baby of the family, with selfishly expensive tastes and big intentions. the book has always rung true to the story of me and my sisters except for the fact that i gave in and married "my boy" and jo refused to!

i've always celebrated this book but it's never been much more to me than a sweet story. re-reading the book through these new adult eyes of mine reveals that it is much, much, more than that.

this time i read it i learned so much about myself and how to conquer my problems through jo, as always. but now as a wife and mother learned much through marmee and meg too. marmee is the model mother and is always teaching her children through her example . which is something i fail to take into consideration every day!

then meg was a model mommy and put her marriage on the back burner thinking that was the right thing to do and then faulted her husband for their marital problems and his abscence in their children's lives. it was through a very wise word from her honest mother that revealed that it was meg that was in the wrong and not her husband. meg was putting her children before her husband which is a very dangerous mistake to make in a young marriage. a mistake that very often is reasoned away but always results in a broken connection and sometimes even in a broken marriage.

how did i ever miss this terrific piece of truth the other 67 times that i've read this book? what an all important lesson that could have helped so much in eric and i's early stages of life together. i see so many great mommies making this mistake today. one would figure that such an ancient problem would have some modern answers but we are still struggling with the same things today.

this may be a bit of a soapbox but where are these kinds of lessons being taught today? we get plenty of math, science and english at school but where and when are we supposed to learn how to be effective adults? not only are there many relational lessons going unlearned but lessons of practical significance like, what is health insurance and how does it work, what is 401k, how do you buy a house, how to manage money effectively etc. there are so many lessons going untaught and then as a consequence, unlearned. who is there to teach us these all important lessons beside our good friends, trial and error? i am totally rambling. . .

i really had so much fun re-reading this wise classic and it's little life lessons have produced so much thought that i've made a resolution to re-read all my old favorites, examining them closely for any wisdom that my have been overlooked by my once juvinille eyes.