A Few Fine Things

Last year, I had strep throat three times. Since my last bout, I’ve had to deal with tonsillitis on a couple of occasions, but it was never “bad enough” that I felt I needed to rush in to see the doctor. This time, the sore throat is aggravating, and I think I may have a very low-grade fever; but I’m still managing my morning walks (which have been wonderful, by the way), and I’m determined, as much as possible, to avoid the doctor’s office and having to take antibiotics.

The doctor our insurance company assigned to me is a nice enough gentleman, but from all appearances, he serves at least half of the elderly population of Tallahassee, and therefore, he is constantly running an alarming number of minutes behind schedule. The first time I visited his office, I was terribly ill with strep, and I waited three hours to see him—and only then because I told the receptionist I was tired of waiting and was going to leave; the nurse caught me on my way out and insisted the doctor would see me immediately.

Anyway, I’m managing. I suppose if I were to go in and tell Dr. B- the whole of it, he would recommend I have my tonsils removed altogether. No thanks. At least, no thanks for now.

But all this is to say that I’ve not felt like dashing around the house accomplishing large amounts of work. At the moment, I’m handling some laundry and am caught up on dishes, and I did clean one of the bathrooms over the weekend, so we’re all right.

In the meantime, though, I’ve had a chance to enjoy some downtime, which has included some lovely reading and TV-watching (as well as the aforementioned walks). So I thought I would share some thoughts about some of the fine things I’ve read/heard/seen.

Fine Thing #1: Persuasion on “Masterpiece Theater.” It was very nicely done. I have to say that—unlike Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Mansfield Park, and Emma—Persuasion, as a novel, does not lend itself well to theatrical production. No movie of it that I have seen has been able to do justice to the book. The reason is that so much of Persuasion takes place in the heart and mind of Anne Elliot. Thoughts and feelings just do not come across entirely well on the big screen (or on the small one, for that matter). Even the best acting ability can only convey so much. For the rest, one really must have had the chance to read the novel beforehand. Which brings me to……

Fine Thing #2: Northanger Abbey. I am reading it now for the first time, in anticipation of seeing the “Masterpiece Theater” production of it this coming Sunday. It is very different from the rest of Jane Austen’s books. As a few of my college professors seemed to believe I was shallow in my interpretation of literary and dramatic texts, I made sure to skim the introduction before I began reading, so that I wouldn’t happen to read the novel in the “wrong way.” Of course, these introductions love to give away the plots of books, so I was careful not to read too much of it.

Apparently (and I did manage to glean this tidbit without the help of a scholarly introduction), Jane Austen used Northanger Abbey to poke fun at the popular gothic novels of the day. However, she seemed to do it in a respectful way—at least, as far as I’ve gotten, that seems to have been the case.

In one way, I think perhaps Jane Austen didn’t entirely respect Catherine Morland (the heroine of the book). And yet, I find Catherine to be a very likeable, normal type of person—not so supremely confident of herself the way Elizabeth Bennet was, and not so precocious like Emma Woodhouse (though of course I loved both those characters). And as for Henry Tilney, the hero of the book, he is very unlike the “typical” heroes we see in romance novels. He’s a clergyman, for one thing. And he is not (so far) brooding and moody and melodramatic. He’s funny and astute. I like him a great deal and can see why Catherine does too.

Anyhow, I’ve only just begun “Volume II” of the book, and I’m interested to see what sorts of intrigues will arise. It will be fun to compare and contrast with the TV/movie version when it comes on next week.

Fine Thing #3: I finished The Dowry of Miss Lydia Clark by Lawana Blackwell. It’s the third and final book of her “Gresham Chronicles” series. It was one of those things where I was racing along, not able to put the book down because it was so good; yet, at the same time, wanting to slow the pace of my reading so I could savor every last dwindling page. I wanted to cry when it was finished. How I’d grown to love that fictional town, and how I was going to miss those wonderful characters!

I knew that this was the second printing of this series of books—they were originally put out back in the late 90s (nearly 10 years ago!). I started to wonder…..Is there any chance the publisher went through the trouble of putting these books out again with new, prettier covers and such because the author was writing another book about Gresham?!?! I went on-line to find out.

Sure enough! There is another “Gresham” book coming out this summer! There is even a picture of the proposed cover and a brief description on the author’s website. I can’t tell you how happy I am about this. I mean, I enjoyed these books so much. They’re desert island books—you know, “If you were stranded on a desert island and could only have X number of books, which ones would you choose?” These, definitely. I tell you, I am more over-the-moon about another of these books coming out than I was to learn that Victoria magazine was coming back. (If you know me, you know that’s saying a lot!)

Fine Thing #4: My son came home with a terrific report card.  Oh!  And I finally beat him at chess today, too! 

Fine Thing #5: The Veggie Tales cartoon entitled “A Snoodle’s Tale.” It’s done in the style of Dr. Seuss (who, I confess, has never been my favorite) and is a lesson to children in self-worth—learning that the way people around us see us and judge us is not the same way God sees us and judges us.

The little ones and I watched this the other day during our lunch time. I actually didn’t know exactly where the story was going, but I was watching and just pleasantly amused. And then came the part where the little Snoodle finally met his Creator—his Creator, who explained how special and valuable he was, and Who admired the Snoodle’s artwork and put up on His fridge. It touched my heart, and I had tears running down my face. Something about the Creator’s kind voice, and His message to the Snoodle about how he oughtn’t let others’ negative messages hold him back from being the Snoodle he’d been created to be…..I just cried. I guess because, even as a grown-up, I haven’t fully learned that lesson yet. I still tend to see myself in the old way, with those long-lived and uncharitable views others have had of me (and I’ve had of myself) dragging me down and keeping me from going after and living my dreams—being the best version of myself, the self that cares only what God thinks, the self that has been set free.

And maybe, too, I cried because I’d just been thinking about some of these things on my own, and was contemplating ways to rise above and be more generous in the way I care for myself—particularly my health and talents.

So there is my list. I’m off to cut out construction-paper puffin bodies for Urban’s teacher.

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kimberly