I want a "Susan Baker" :o)

 Now, any of you 'Anne of Green Gables' buffs know what I am talking about but, for those of you who maybe haven't read all 8 books this week :o), I will explain.  Susan Baker is the house help at Anne's House of Dreams and then at Ingleside.  I love her. She is a fun, chatty, "old maid" who "knows her place" lol, is hard working, makes pies almost every day, etc.... Now, I realize there is a lot of people who think that because we have modern appliances we no longer need house help, but I disagree. My appliances REFUSE to have a conversation with me, they don't do the work themselves if I am sick, they can't wipe a runny nose if I am up to my armpits in something or other, in short they are just appliances.
ETA:  I don't think I was as clear as I wanted when I wrote this..... A BIG part of what I loved in Susan Baker was the mutual benefit. It wasn't just a job. She became 1 of the family. She couldn't have imagined life without them. They needed her, she was useful, she was loved, she was family. Without that job she most likely would have been stuck living with siblings, feeling like a burden instead of a needed part of the family.  For the Blythes the help was invaluable, but so was the love, the care, the devotion of this woman. The couldn't have imagined living without her either. She wasn't just some person who had been hired and came once in awhile to help out. She lived with them and loved them. The beauty in the situation is the mutual beneficiation of both parties.
I also am developing a LOVE for the naming of homes..... I just love that many homes used to have names and would love for my someday home to have a name.  :o)

 On a slightly different subject, I noticed how much I have changed this week. When I first read the 'Anne' series (tweens/early teens?)  I loved them for the fun story and for the romance, when I read them in my late teens it was for those reasons and for the characters and just plain wonderful writing, such descriptions!  When I read them in my early twenties I still loved them but didn't like them as well, there was something that made me slightly unsettled. Too much "magic" for my very matter-of -fact personage? I wasn't sure what it was....... This time I was able to put my finger on exactly what it was that left me feeling rather disappointed. It was the fact that there was so much religion.  They quoted Bible verses, they talked about going to heaven, etc... but it always stopped short of the mark. They never seem to be absolutely sure of how or why they were going to get there.  I was rather saddened by this frequent falling short of the truth. I realize its a novel but still......  I have noticed this in other books too. They last week I watched 'Fiddler On The Roof'.  I have always loved that movie for the characters, the drama, and the romance, but this time I watched ti with sorrow. It hit home like never before how very lost these people were. Very religious and sincere in their traditions but sincerely wrong.  I about cried over the line " Rabbi, we have waited so long for the Messiah, wouldn't now be a good time for him to come?"  Oh, for people to realize that He HAS come. Our Messiah had come and He is offering the healing you so desperately need! 

  Anyhow, I just thought it interesting that in so many areas lately I am seeing much more clearly peoples need for a Messiah, their longings, and all that He has to offer. I am more sensitive to the evidences of the emptiness and deceptiveness of religion. 

 Anyhow, enough of my ramblings.......  Hope you all have a lovely week! :o)

Foreword

I will probably bore you to death with book talk but I have to share this little incident with you! :o) In perusing my Mom's library I found a copy of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. As it had been several years since I read it I thought I would re-read it...... Now this book is a 1995 printing and the paperback cover makes it look like a ridiculous schoolgirl romance not a literary classic. If I had not known what was inside that paperback cover I would not have picked it up to read!  Anyhow, for some unknown reason I decided to read the Foreword. I have yet to learn why Forewords are in books but they often are and this one had a doozy!  It is written by Elizabeth Engstrom whom, from a quick search on wikipedia, I learned is an author and a teacher at many writing seminars. The impression I got was that she is a rather well known celebrated author. Anyhow, the Foreward was pretty normal until I got about 1/2 way through and then she said this: 
    "Elinor, the eldest sister, is engaged to be married to conservative Edward Farrars, a man of impeccable breeding and reputation.  Marianne, the younger sister, is smitten with Holloway, a man of dubious lineage and questionable activities, but with a theatrical flair that steals her heart." 

   I about fell off my chair! What had they done to Jane Austens classic?!?!?! So, I read the book and found that it was unaltered. Evidently Ms. Ensgstrom didn't actually read the book, she just wrote a general Foreword based on all the other stuff that is our there. I mean, Elinor was not engaged to Edward for most of the book and, worse yet, Marianne is not "smitten" with a man named Holloway!!! His name was Whilloughby for pitys sake!!!!  You would think that an editor or SOMEBODY would have caught that! Anyhow, so the lesson to be learned from this is to read the book before you sign your name to a Foreword for it!  ;o) 

Back?

Wow,  I can't believe its been a month since I updated!  I am not sure exactly why it is so difficult to get to the computer these days, but it is..... In some ways there seems to be so much happening that my head is spinning and yet, at the same time, it seems that there is really nothing to say. All of the long "catch up" posts that I have written are lost in the recesses of my tired mind, and so I am rather at a loss...... How in the world do you write a month worth of posts? So, rather than a "catch up" post I am just going to let you know that I am alive and, if Mom will let me borrow her laptop long termish ;o), then I will try to update more often. So, if any of you still read this, I am back........... I think. :o)