What do classic literature, live sporting events, and ‘80s pop music have in common? This post, frankly, with musings on three vignettes from my week.
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What are the odds that on the same day I would read two scenes in different books of characters having the same experience: traveling down a road surrounded by trees in full bloom?
I’m reading Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery aloud with my kids, and we came to that famous scene with Anne on her way to Avonlea from the train station. She passes through a row of apple trees in full bloom, and the beauty stuns her into silence.
"Oh, Mr. Cuthbert," she whispered, "that place we came through--that white place--what was it?"
"Well now, you must mean the Avenue," said Matthew after a few moments' profound reflection. "It is a kind of pretty place."
"Pretty? Oh, pretty doesn't seem the right word to use. Nor beautiful, either. They don't go far enough. Oh, it was wonderful--wonderful. It's the first thing I ever saw that couldn't be improved upon by imagination. … But they shouldn't call that lovely place the Avenue. There is no meaning in a name like that. They should call it--let me see--the White Way of Delight. Isn't that a nice imaginative name?
I can just see the setting, can’t you? It’s that much more magical to see it through the eyes of a child who’s had a hard start to life and hasn’t seen a lot of beautiful things. She doesn’t hold in her emotion of awe at this beautiful place.
Then later that day, I was listening to Meryl Streep read Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake. The whole novel is a love letter to Michigan, and specifically the beauty of rural northern Michigan. As the main character travels from the Traverse City airport to the fictional Tom Lake, she has this experience:
“…really I wasn’t listening. Who can listen to complaints about actors in the presence of so many cherry trees, miles and miles of them in full ceremonial headdress? “Look at this!” I wanted to cry as we raced down the strain country roads in Eric’s old Volvo station wagon, but surely Eric had seen the trees before.”
The reader knows that this first encounter with cherry trees will make a big impression on the main character, and she will always be in awe of their beauty.
I love that I read these both on the same day, as two people in different places and different centuries have almost the exact same experience. Sure, Ann Patchett was likely inspired by Anne of Green Gables. But this overlap has me on the lookout for rows of flowering trees in LA, and jacaranda season is just around the corner.
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My boys and I joined friends at our first Angel City soccer game this weekend - my first women’s professional sports game. I was surprised at how emotional I felt to be there.
The stadium was packed; fans were loud. I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I was delighted to see so many men wearing pink and cheering for ACFC. I don’t know what I had been expecting, but it was very moving.
I played soccer for two seasons as a child. Standing in BMO Stadium as the crowd erupted at a goal, I couldn’t’ help but think of that girl in the ‘80s and ‘90s. A women’s professional sports team – no matter the sport – was on exactly no one’s radar then. At least no one in the 4th grade.
And best of all, I shared it with my sons, who were cheering on the ACFC and jumping up and down with the whole crowd!
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Before last Saturday, I could have sworn Debbie Gibson sang Heaven is a Place on Earth. I could even picture the video in my head. But as a friend pointed out, it was actually Belinda Carlisle who sang it.
What? I looked up what songs Debbie Gibson did sing that maybe I had conflated and didn’t really recognize any of them. Not that I was a big music nerd, but this had been like a core piece of my entrée in to pop music.
Then, I find out that Tiffany’s I think We’re Alone Now was actually a cover and was originally recorded by Tommy James and the Shondell’s in the ‘60s. How is this possible?
The foundations of my tweendom are coming down around me.
I feel like I’ve been living a lie.
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~What I’m reading~
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work by John M. Gottman