After I finished The Hunger Games series for the third time and imposing those books on many a friend and family member, I decided that I would finally have to resign to moving along to another book. Occasionally, I still pick up one of the trilogy, open to a page, and start reading for a few minutes. My husband equates it to taking a small hit of heroine just to get by. For once, I had no response, no refutation.
After I weaned myself off that series, I set my mind to Atlas Shrugged. I've decided that that beast will have to wait until my kids are all in school (3 years away) because I cannot give it the focus it demands while kids are swirling about me telling me about their dreams, their day at school, what's for dinner, and all the other things that call for a mother's attention at the drop of a hat. I reread the first 50 pages of The Help. I love that book to the death, but I wanted to go on a new journey. My husband wanted me to read The Overton Window on his behalf. It had all the right ingredients for a good book. But the whole was not greater than the sum of its parts. Also, I could not dissociate the book from its author, and I consequently had difficulty getting lost in the story.
I got a recommendation for a book called These is My Words by Nancy E. Turner. For once I didn't run out and buy it, but waited patiently for it to come in at the library. I hated that. But oh, how I loved the book. It was worth the wait and now it will be worth the nine dollars I will fork out on Amazon to buy it - because I will want to read this story every now and again.
These is my Words is a faction (fact and fiction combined) written in a diary format by an Arizona Territory homesteader named Sarah Agnes Prine. I won't go over all the plot points or characters because what I want to convey is how this book effected me.
I don't think I'm alone when I dream of living in a more virtuous time. I have often thought to myself, 'I would have loved to lived during the fifties when people were so much more innocent or responsible or virtuous. Sure, I'd have to wear a corset and forego wonders of the world like tampons and dishwashers, but it would be worth it to not have to deal with all the vice and ails of the world today.' I have watched shows like "Frontier House" and romanticized the simplicity and peace found in that life. Sarah's diary was a bit of a disillusionment.
First of all, I don't think there has been a time of complete virtue and peace. Ever since Cain killed Abel there have been people who act out of selfishness, injure others, both men and women who refused to control their appetites, and a disregard for the law of the land and the law of God. There have always been robbers, rapists, murders, and liars. However, there are usually good, hard-working, and honest people who maintain their integrity regardless of the difficulties or success they're met with. This book depicts a real person who did just that, and therein lies its quality.
I think that any woman who tries to fulfill her obligations, rear her children to be good and decent, improve both her intellect and character, and weather the storms that come unexpectedly in life can relate to Sarah Prine. My husband is in the military, and as we have traveled around the country, I've made a habit out of speaking candidly with the women I meet. It is rare that I meet one who has not experienced events they never expected to weather. I've listened to women who have buried children, lived through poverty, suffered through incestuous fathers, been physically abused by those who are supposed to love and protect them, struggled through illness, and, in many cases, come through it a better and more compassionate woman. I think that's why Sarah Prine is both easy to relate with and admirable. Just like so many other women, she survived because the minutes, hours, and days kept rolling on whether her heart was broken or not.
Sarah's unapologetic, spitfire attitude was complimented and enhanced by her love, Captian Jack Elliot. Often times we think that opposites attract and I have seen many a marriage where one spouse was strong and so the other assumed a weak position. Sarah and Jack were both strong to and for each other and I think that is a remarkable trait for marriages nowadays. My personal feeling is that women have become more masculine in an attempt to compete and feel validated in a man's world. As I look around at the many feminized males and metrosexuals in todays society and men who hate getting their hands dirty to change the oil on their own cars, I wonder if that is a natural inclination to maintaining the polarity between the sexes.
I think that Jack's overwhelmingly gruff masculinity and how it plays out in the romance is one of the main things that attracts women to this book. While there are many good husbands out there, the males in our species have almost completely lost masculine traits that offset the gentler feminine side. We'd be hard pressed in this society to find a man with as calloused of hands as Sarah's. On the other uncalloused hand, I have also seen feminity diminish as women build shells around themselves to get along in a world that has little respect for motherhood, gentility, and where crimes against women are increasing. The demise of masculinity and femininity seem to be a self-perpetuating cycle.
In unrelated news, I will admit that I was severely disheartened to find that Jack Elliot's character and the dynamic he created with Sarah was completely fictional.
After all is said and done, this book was definitely a page turner and illustrated relevant themes that touched on things that I think about often living in these times and in the midst of such skewed gender perceptions. It's also nice to put away some of those romanticized ideas about living in a different idyllic time. I guess I'll keep on keepin' on in this high paced life. And every time someone flips me off with road rage, or I hear about another person who killed their kids and themself, I'll remember the luxuries and good along with all the hardship and bad.
