09/09/09 and Little Women

When I was younger, like twenty years younger (yikes, it almost hurts so say that!), dates such as today's mystified me. I think that on 8/8/88 I must have written half a dozen bad, pathetic, ridiculous little poems or "things"on account of the significant date. In those years, when I was 16-18, I wrote feverishly, much like one of my favorite fictional/loosely autobiographical heroines, Jo March.

Last night I finished re-reading one of my favorite books ever, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (and I can't believe I lived in Massachusetts for eight years and haven't yet been to Concord, or Salem. Sigh. Someday, I really want to go... someday soon, preferably). And all the while I had to smile because one of my blogging friends recently wrote on facebook that she never finished the book after Jo refused Laurie. I quite like that she did that, actually. Jo's rebelliousness and, most important of all, her consistency in following her dreams and ideals, has always inspired me.

Reading the book in this particularly period of my life has made me identify strongly with certain aspects of the work. I feel the same way the four girls did (particularly Meg and Amy) about being [relatively speaking] poor. It gets old and tiring after a while, but it also does good to one's character and disposition. It's not easy to bear, though... and sometimes I feel like whining for a new TV/ car/ couches the same way Meg and Amy whined about not having any nice dresses and things. I guess one could say that the book has outdated overly "moralistic" values, what with the constant references to Pilgrim's Progress, but 150 years later, these are  values that I think the world still needs and that I personally seek to uphold in my own life.

The other aspect that resonated with me strongly is that of being changed by suffering (particularly Jo after Beth's death, but also Laurie, after being refused by Jo). I know that what we/I recently went through is nothing, really, compared with other's people's financial, health, and personal woes, but now I realize that going through this small measurement of suffering has really changed me. I'm not very happy with the change right now, but hopefully it can make me stronger in the end.

I could say many more things about this book, but now I have to go and find and read the contemporary "sequel" or "other side of the story," March, by Geraldine Brooks, one of the few books that I allowed myself to purchase last year,* but which I didn't get to read and now cannot find in my bookshelves! I'll get back to you after I read it.

Meanwhile, I should enjoy the last few hours of this most rare 09-09-09 day!!

* Remember what I just wrote about being "poor"? Not being able to buy books is one of the small burdens I have to bear -- using Alcott's imagery