One of my favorite movies is the 1949 version of Louisa May Alcott’s "Little Women". Every year, right around Christmas, I watch this movie with my mom and we laugh and cry as if it's the first tyme we've ever seen it. It isn't a movie filled with a lot of action, humor or mystery, but what it does not have in those aspects, it makes up for in human nature and family values.
The story takes place at Christmas tyme in a New England town during the War Between the States, where the March family, once rich and prestigious, now finds itself dealing with the hardships of war. They used to have coffee every morning, but with the war they had to drink tea. (I'm guessing this was a major sacrifice for them whereas I would prefer the tea, but I digress.) There was no money to buy the things needed to prepare a proper breakfast and certainly no money to buy Christmas presents, in fact, it would suffice to say plainly, there was no money at all.
The father, Rev. March, was off fighting for the Union while the mother, "Marmie" was serving as nursemaid to the town while the doctors were off at the war camp hospitals. Then, there were four girls, Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth and if ever there were four sisters who defined the opposites of North, South, East and West, it was the March sisters. From sensible to dramatic, self-absorbed to innocent, they depicted it all. Still, with all their quirks and issues, the four sisters were best friends.
Now, you might be wondering why I happened to think of this movie now, what with Christmas being many weeks ago, but as of late, well, I've had a lot of tyme to think about a lot of things. That aside, lately there has been a sort similarity between the scenes of "Little Women" and the scenes outside my window.
As the movie opens, a fresh falling of snow blankets the ground, serving as a stumbling block for Jo as she attempts to jump the railing in her less than conducive attire. With her sisters laughing at her failed attempt, she picks herself up, brushes the snow off her dress and proceeds to jump the railing again, this tyme with precision. Then, to wipe that smug look off her sisters' faces she throws a snowball against the window out of which they are looking. I laugh at this every tyme.
Throughout the movie there are several scenes shot in or at least showing the outside and in everyone one, for the first half of the movie anyway, there is snow covering everything, including the roads. There were no snow plows to open driveways, clear roadways or hitching post areas. There were no salt trucks spreading chemicals in an effort to melt the ice nor were there any schools closed because of the weather. No, the roads and parking areas stayed snow covered, the schools stayed open and life went on as normal. Instead of a wagon, folks hitched up a sleigh and instead of a bus, kids walked to school. Oh how tymes have changed.
When I think about how life is now, I'm almost saddened, because we, as a society, lack what the March family had. Instead of enjoying the variety of the season, we complain about the mess it makes of our lives. I am so guilty of this that were it considered a crime, I would receive the most severe punishment possible. We fail to see the blessings in the rearrangement of our day. We cannot get passed the fact that we were not able to do what we wanted to do, but if we stopped and considered it, we might actually be able to do some things we never knew we always wanted to do.
Consider the March sisters again. Jo was a playwright and used her talents to create scenes that she and her sisters acted out during the snowy, winter days. They laughed, they played, and they spent a quality of tyme together that, to the overall American society, would seem a foreign concept.
While I realize that it is just a book and a movie, it still stands to reason that the ideals behind the family aspect of "Little Women" had to be real to the author, much like the sitting room scenes of books like Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" were common to the author's day. Good writers, which the noted authors were, write about things they know something about. Louisa May Alcott knew about spending quality tyme with family and friends, a lesson we could all stand to study.
So as I sit here, snowed in and going a bit stir crazy, I am reminded by "Little Women", that God has not all of a sudden changed the weather patterns and disrupted my life, it is my life that has tried to challenge the weather. Let me just tell you that if you are determined to go into battle with God, you better be prepared to lose because, in spite of ourselves, God always gives us what we need 'weather' we like it or not!
So, if the weather or any other variable seems to put a road block in your day, do well to enjoy the journey around said obstacle. Chances are the blessings you find will far outweigh the chore of the detour.
Snowy Smiles and Blessings,
~LK~
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