Monday, June 14, 2010

Finding yourself in the strangest of places


Ahh...the popular romance novel. I must admit that while I love reading romance novels, I don't really "get" the people in romance novels. I'm as likely to be involved in a "I hate you, no wait, I think I love you" scenario as I am to fly to the moon. The casual arrogance of most the male characters (at least in the books I pick up) is nothing like my own husband and I bear little resemblence to the intriguing spitfire female character who has no awareness of her own attractiveness. I don't think either hubby or myself would ever run through an airport and onto a departing plane and declare "I just had to tell you I loved you before it was too late".

But, I have begun to find characters in books and movies that I relate to...my only issue is that they are either the parents or the grandparents of the main characters. I think that is a sure sign that I'm getting old. Hubby and I watched the movie Whip It last night. It was a Drew Barrymore production about a young girl (17) whose mom wanted her to compete in beauty pagents and she wanted to compete in the roller derby. She, of course, falls in love with some dude at the roller skate rink. My heart didn't identify with the love she felt for skate-park-dude. My heart identified with the love her parents had for each other. Two people who didn't appear to have much in common (he, a beer drinking sports enthusiast. She, an elegant, uptight, beauty pagent mom), yet were devoted to each other and defended each other when the child raged about the unfairness of her parents.

I saw a future version of myself in the novel I read this weekend too. The novel was called Love Mercy and it was about a teenage girl who ran away from a crazy love affair to the home of her estranged grandma. The girl was just looking for a place to go where her boyfriend couldn't find her, but the story centered on the love that developed between her and her grandma. I, of course, didn't related to the grandma in that story. Nope, I related to the great-grandparents. The great grandparents had lived together for 60 years and had been through endless tragedies, but weren't consumed with bitterness. Instead they provided a happy positive place for their families to come, to celebrate life's joys and to find comfort from life's sorrows. I would love to be that person in 40 more years.

I've been working my way through a bible study on Esther (using the workbook and DVD series by Beth Moore). She made a point in that study on that people can be grouped into 2 categories: those who believe they have a destiny in life and search for it, and those who don't. I think those who search for destiny are the ones that people write novels about. People like me, people that don't look for any greatness or defining moments in their lives, don't make very exciting main characters. But maybe we make good supporting characters...and that's all right with me.