Currant Wine > Raspberry Cordial

There are certain things that should be completely obvious, but for whatever reasons, I've never actually thought about. A perfect example of my ignorance on such matters occurred the other night. Javier and I were watching "Anne of Green Gables," and don't judge him; see, we've been trading movies. We take turns picking movies that we want to share with the other person, just because we really dig them, and/or because those movies are important to us.

So being the awesome boyfriend that he is, Javier was very graciously watching "Anne of Green Gables," because it seriously has been such a special movie to me for 20 years now. But anyway, at one point while watching, he looked at me, and went, "You really wish you lived in this time, don't you?"

I knew he wasn't mocking me when I turned to him, mouth agape (sorry, give me a few days to get the movie out of my system, and I'll probably refrain from saying "agape." And, most likely, "refrain."), and was like, "YES!" I had no idea! But it was so true! And he was all, "Awww, my hippie girlfriend!" Which is also basically true.

But seriously, how could I help it? You know how some people grew up in awesome musical households, and were the ones in high school who were so much cooler than (me) because they liked bands like Led Zeppelin and The Sex Pistols? Because that's what they grew up with? Well, I grew up with folk music on the record player, "Little House on the Prairie" on the television, and Little Women on the bookshelf, except not even the bookshelf, because I was always reading it! Anne of Green Gables simply cemented my love for all things late 1800s-early 1900s. And yes, I know that folk music is not from that time, but I mean...come on.

My secret, and previously undiscovered desire to live in this particular time could be boiled down to the following:

Farms and Horses and Stuff. I adore farms. Everything about them. The animals, the dirt. The smell of manure. I love haystacks, and rope swings from lofts. And I LOVE horses. I got thrown from a horse when I was 13, and it did nothing to deter me from riding again. I honestly think I could be happy living on a farm, so long as I didn't have to slaughter any animals. Maybe I could have a blackberry farm, since I totally see them as The Unsung Fruit, and want to play a part in staging their breakthrough into main society.

Costumes! I am a HUGE fan of costumes, in every way. I have dressed up for every single Halloween since I was four. One of my favorite things about doing extra work and regional theater was being able to painstakingly pick my own period costumes. I love uniforms, because I believe that if you are "dressed for the part," you do your part with much greater ease. So anyway, I love the late 1800s-early 1900s for clothing alone. I can totally deal with corsets if it means I get to wear bitchin' hats and freaking BUSTLES, I mean, come ON, now! That's great stuff! Especially because it's so awesome that in that time, bedtime was such a mysterious ritual. Getting into a nightgown, and taking down your (long, long) hair in front of the vanity, then brushing it with one of those fancy combs? Yay!

Schoolhouses. Dude, I want to go to a schoolhouse. I want to use a slate. I want someone to dip one of my braids in an inkwell. I'm not even kidding. Schoolhouses are AWESOME!

Quill Pens and Letter Writing. I love writing, and am sooo glad I get to type, and have email, but MAN, I still get mad nostalgic for the days when I'd write these epic letters to random pen pals that I'd met in various places of the country. One of whom, in fact, I met on a farm!

That pretty much covers it, as far as bullet points go, but honestly, thinking about the subject objectively, I don't actually want to go back in time. Because as beautiful as it sounds in so many ways, there's a lot of bad, too. For instance, I wouldn't want to live in a time without civil liberties, or where I couldn't vote. And now that I think about it, I sort of just totally ripped off an exchange between Buffy and Willow in "Halloween," but I didn't mean to. Don't sue me!

I guess that is sort of the rub of life, though. There was once an Onion article with the headline "Man Always Nostalgic for Four Years Ago," and it's so uncomfortably funny, because it really is easy to romanticize the past. To wish that you could go back, be younger, do things differently. But you really can't do that, because then you have to take the bad as well as the good. Those are the facts of life.

So I am grateful to Javier for highlighting my comfort level in this time period, because it made me think about why that comfort level exists to begin with. And I realize that as awesome as the aforementioned horses et al. are, what I love most about the "pioneer time" is that it reminds me of what it feels like to truly believe wholeheartedly that life is always worth it. "Little House," Little Women, Anne of Green Gables...those people had bad stuff happen! Mary went blind! Beth died! Anne's hair turned green! But the protagonists always kept fighting, because that's just what you did. And I think that's all it is, mainly. I want to believe that people still believe that beauty and goodness and truth should always be the things in life worth fighting for. No matter what century it is.




©2007