After stumbling upon Louisa May Alcott’s family home, Orchard House, while in Concord, Massachusetts this summer, I have wanted to see the movie Little Women again. I was finally able to record it on Christmas Eve and watched it early Christmas morning before husband and bird woke up.
The Civil War timeframe, the closeness of this family and the strong narrative that women can do anything all tied together beautifully for me yesterday with not one of these themes overpowering the other. And then Marnee, mother of the March women and, the perfect role for Susan Sarandon, says the following to her second born, writer Jo:
“Go. And embrace your liberty and see what wonderful things come of it.”
I have been known to think about our freedom. Often. And I have spoken of our great fortune to live in a country where we have the ability to be anything. But do I think of it as such an entitled right that I fail to wear it like the American flag I imagine is wrapped around my heart?
As I put gifts away today, hanging up clothes, setting up technology, finding a place for the new sign from my nephew, entering Uber gift cards into my account, I think about my personal philosophy of using and displaying things and not waiting for a rainy day to get out the good china. If I feel this way about things why don’t I treat my liberty in kind?
As we wrap up 2017 this week, I look ahead to a year in which I intend to be who I am meant to be. No more clean slate as we ring in the New Year but instead an accumulation of the life I have lived so far. Our liberty is so much more than the right to vote, the ability to speak freely without punishment as I do here on this blog, the quest for a happy life. It’s also the responsibility we all have to explore every option and opportunity, to use our good china every day. It’s hard work and terrifying to put yourself out there. But we’ve been given liberty. We need to use it to death.
