We took our kids to see Great Gerwig’s new version of Little Women, and I had to come home to write. If you have not seen the new movie, I urge you to see it. If at the very least, be sure to watch the trailer. Gerwig’s version is unique, fresh, and gets to the heart of the story—what can a woman do to make her way in the world if she doesn’t marry?
Although Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women 150 years ago, her book (and Gerwig’s modern take) is still as powerful today.
We, humans, have the power to use our imagination and life experiences, capture them in words, and then share our art with the world.
No matter the hardships and pain that we go through, we have art to transcend, and those stories can help heal us.
Think about that for a moment.
Louisa May Alcott died in 1888, but her work is still influencing people today. The written word can transcend time, wars, and even death. What she felt and thought has been captured in a book that’s been made into many different films over the years.
I wonder if Louisa May Alcott imagined that one day women would have the right to vote, or serve in the army, be a CEO and even be the leader of some of the world’s most powerful countries.
The world has changed from Alcott’s time and will continue to improve. I hope and pray that my daughter (and hopefully both my son’s and daughter’s future children) will see more fair options made available for women.
There is a lot of darkness in our world. Famine, greed, death, corruption—the list goes on, but we have a choice.
How we grew up and how we choose to live can be entirely different.
Etching from Louisa May Alcott’s tombstone in Author’s Ridge, Sleep Hollow graveyard in Concord, MA.
Twenty-five years ago, my wife and I took our first vacation together through the New England states. We stopped, and I made etchings of Emerson’s, Thoreau’s, and Louisa May Alcott’s tombs. As the first in my family to go to college, I chose to be an English Literature major because I wanted to write and share my stories with the world.
I respected Alcott’s hard work and made an etching of her grave to remind myself of the struggle she went through to publish her work as a woman.
And today, I sat in a movie theater with my children to watch Little Women.
There is no way that my teenage self could ever imagine that I deserved to fall in love, marry, and raise a family with my life.
When you grow up in an alcoholic/dysfunctional family, you just try to survive. I had no idea where I would be, how I would survive, and what I ever would grow up to do. I couldn’t see it because my world centered around the dysfunctional behavior.
The shame of having a father who abused my mom. The pain of being the son of a man who did such things, and I had his blood in me. And the brokenness I felt in being lost and alone as I could not find a way to be chooses. I kept seeing other families be happy, but I didn’t know how to do that. I only knew what I grew up around and how my experiences affected me.
I know that someone will eventually find this post and read it in the depths of despair. I understand what that feels like.
If I could go back in time to my past self, I would tell him not to give up. To love himself with as much passion and joy as he could muster that the shame and anger and hurt need to be loved.
One day he would be happy. One day he would have a family and need to pass on to his children what he learned.
The power of Louisa May Alcott’s work is that it’s timeless. I feel for the sisters because they come alive on the page and in the movies.
Art can save and heal you. That is what I would tell my teenage self. The power of a book or a movie can be what helps you transcend the darkness you’re dealing with and inspire you to get help, not to give up.
All my life I have tried so hard to not be like my father. I have struggled to get to where I am, but the secret of it all is in the quiet moments of life.
To stop and love yourself.
Alcott knew something about hardship and how to overcome them. Gerwig picks up that thread with a modern slant and directs a powerful scene in the movie. When all seems lost, and no one is around you, what will you choose to do?
Will you give in to defeat?
Or will you rise up and still persevere?
I am so happy that my teenage self choose to persevere.
And dear reader, if I could take your hands in mine, I would look you in the eye and tell you not to give up. Please, you are not alone. You are loved. You just are.
Like what you’ve read? Be sure to check out my other posts in my Let Go and Be Free blog.
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