" Oh some day! When there was security in her world again, then she would sit back and fold her hands and be a great lady as Ellen [her mother] had been...She could permit herself to be kind and gentle and thoughtful of other people. She would not be driven by fears, day and night, and life would be a placid, unhurried affair. She would have time to play with her children and listen to their lessons. There would be long warm afternoons when ladies would call and, amid rustlings of taffeta petticoats and the rhythmic harsh cracklings of palmetto fans, she would serve tea and delicious sandwiches and cakes and leisurely gossip the hours away. And she would be so kind to those who were suffering misfortune, take baskets to the poor and soup and jelly to the sick and "air" those less fortunate in her fine carriage. She would be a lady in the true Southern manner, as her mother had been. And then, everyone would love her as they had loved Ellen and they would say how unselfish she was and call her "Lady Bountiful."-Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind
Oh, I want to be a "Lady Bountiful" don't you. To be like Ellen, a gracious southern lady surrounded by beauty and gentility. Just as Scarlet found comfort in dreaming about how things could be once she was rich, I find myself daydreaming about how generous I could be...if...
*If I had enough money to be satisfied. *If I had a job I loved. *If I had a larger home.
But I can get lost in the daydream...just like our dear Katie Scarlett did. You see, (I'll save you the 719 pages here) she didn't really want to be all those things she admired in her mother...she just wanted the adoration and affection that true generosity brings. And when her fortune did change and she and Rhett were wealthy beyond all dreams, she satiated her every desire and thought of her own wishes and wants first and foremost....eventually leaving her a houseful of feeble acquaintances and fair-weather friends.
How sad.So I'm making a resolution to not get bogged down in the Ifs and to be a Lady Bountiful in whatever means I find myself. To rise above my present limitations and be "kind and gentle and thoughtful of other people" in the here and now...
and really BE a lady, not just wish for the shadow of affection that being that kind of lady brings.
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