Pollyanna

Pollyanna

I have called myself a ‘Pollyanna’ a few times on this blog.

Using LibriVox public domain audiobooks, I found Eleanor Porter’s Pollyanna (and actually a few other books from the same author).

I vaguely remember the movie from 1960 (from Disney).  I also vaguely remembered a song with the lyrics “call me a Pollyanna” (Everybody loves a lover).

I really hadn’t read the book but assumed (rightly so), that I need enough of the gist of the story.

Pollyanna is an orphan.  Her mother had died a few years previously and her father died afterward, and she was sent to her aunt Polly in the East.  (Pollyanna is the combination of her mother’s two sisters - Polly, and Anna).  

Her parents were missionaries ‘out west’ and rarely had much in their house.  Ladies Aid societies sent ‘missionary boxes’ to the family - but rarely was what they sent appropriate.  So, as a girl, she had hand-me-downs and patched dresses (and even underwear).  

But, her father had made up “The Glad Game”.  When they got a missionary box that had a pair of crutches, that they didn’t need and not a dress or a doll for the girl, her father made it fun by saying how glad he was NOT to need the crutches.  

With her parents dead, Pollyanna had to make up lots of things to be glad and not reflect on being an orphan - living with her spinster aunt who is not a very warm and loving person.  Aunt Polly took Pollyanna in out of duty.  

Pollyanna plays the glad game in her new community - glad for all the new things in her life.  She is so happy to have a room of her own (even though it was in the attic) - but she could look out the window and see the trees and hills.  Early on, she opens the window and climbs down a tree next to the window to go exploring.  She is glad to see the beautiful things in the neighborhood.  She gets reprimanded when she gets back before flies got into the attic - but she can be glad for a home.  

She makes friends with an invalid who always complains about the meals that the townfolks bring to her “I was wanting chicken today”.  Eventually, Pollyanna takes the lady a whole tray of different foods that she has been wanting, and the lady and Pollyanna are glad for that.  It seems like the whole town gets to know the cute eleven-year-old girl with freckles, and they all start playing the Glad Game.  

Towards the end of the book, Pollyanna breaks her leg and can’t walk.  But, she still is glad - glad for the sunlight making a rainbow on the walls from a prism, glad that her hands work and she can knit and crochet.  

Eventually, Pollyanna thaws out her aunt’s heart; she helps two people, her aunt, and the doctor, who dated and broke up come back together.

The message is simple - be glad.

The Biblical adage “In everything give thanks” seems appropriate.  Or “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”.  

So, yes, I am a Pollyanna.  I try to find something to be glad about.  When something not so nice happens, you can still find something to be happy about.  Maybe the road past your house is torn up and you must take a rocky detour, you can be happy that eventually the road will be fixed and like new.  When my friend had a flat tire last week, she could be glad it happened in town and not on the road and she got very quick service to change the tire with the spare.  She also could be glad that the bad tires could be replaced with a new one.  

What negative thing can you be happy about today?  About being separated from your family for the next four months running the JetBlue airline operation in Steamboat Springs Colorado?  And glad that you can go skiing almost every day, or glad that many people are flying in for a winter vacation and that they are going to have an exciting time on the slopes.  Or glad that you are away from your toxic boss for four months.  Or glad that you are healthy to enjoy your work.  

I can be glad that I haven’t seen my grandchildren in over a year - glad because when that reconciliation occurs, the occasion will truly be GLORIOUS!!!  I can be glad that I have health; that I have great friends; that I have a computer to write on; that I can write my blog; that I had a roof over my head; that I learned about being glad; that I am not in the mental hospital; that I am not homeless; that I can pay my taxes; that I can know and support friends; and glad that God is in my life!!  

So, how about you?  What are you glad about?  Please share it with us!!!

Hugs!!

Karen