Storytime

Alice Hoffman is one of my modern favourite authors. I’m currently reading “The Story Sisters” and find it as addictive as usual. However I was thinking about the storyline which is similar to so many stories that I’ve been reading over the last few years where the protagonists all handle their hardships in unattractive ways. This is Pollyanna coming out in me I suppose but I do think about every day people who suffer through all sorts of difficult situations, job loss, broken marriages, unsatisfactory children and yet they don’t turn to drugs or alcohol nor do they lie, steal or cheat other people. They carry on working, pay their bills and somehow manage to come through on the other side in one piece, integrity intact. It is actually surprising how many people truly do handle hardship with real grace. These are the unsung heroes of the real world.

I think everyone, no matter how charmed their lives might appear to the outside world, at some point in their life they have or will undergo hardship of one kind or another. Some may handle it better than others, some may cry more than others and feel sorry for themselves but most of them won’t resort to crime, drugs or misuse of others to survive. Bending rules, maybe. Alcohol, maybe. Breaking marriages, almost certainly. Yet they are ultimately good people, strong people, admirable people. I don’t think there are enough stories about simple human frailty. It always seems to have to be over the top frailties. I guess I find myself getting uncomfortable with that kind of story. I hate stories about drug abuse (yes this one is about drugs) because from anything I’ve ever heard it doesn’t end well in real life. I can already see the rest of the story in this particular book and I find it sadly disappointing.

I think with wonder on the fortitude of our forebearers, what our grandparents and particularly our grandmothers endured in their lifetimes. Both my maternal great-grandmothers were incredible women, wives of seafaring men who raised large families, suffered the loss of children at sea, worked hard all their lives and never spoke a harsh word to another human being. I find it remarkable; their forbearance was legendary even outside our family circle.

Now that’s the Pollyanna in me.