anne with an e

Do you have favorite things from your childhood?  Places, toys, or memories?  For me, my youth can be summed up in four words, Anne of Green Gables.  Growing up a short drive from Ontario, Canada, I was reared with the delights of CBC.  Every Sunday night they would show an Anne saga or the spin-off series Road to Avonlea.   

To say I loved Anne Shirley is an understatement. I believed I was her.  I dressed up and held tea parties because that's what she would do.  Books, art, studying hard in school?  I attribute it all to Anne.  She infused me with the knowledge and wisdom of kindred spirits and helped me to remember that "Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it."  I watched those movies until the VHS cassettes were completely worn out.  Anne was my everything.

It wasn't until the summer after my freshman year at university that I actually read  the book series by Lucy Maud Montgomery.  They had been sitting on the shelf in the Tall Guy's library for as long as I could remember and with all of my sanctimonious devotion to Anne, I had never read her story.   I devoured them.  The written Anne was even more delicious than on film.

The CBC Anne was more of a modern girl than I realized, all heroine and feminist ideal.  From her I learned the importance of opinions and the value of education.  I developed a need for lasting friendships and for the outdoors.  From the books I gained so much more.

The book Anne is far more humble.  She has an unbelievably generous heart that truly loves everyone and everything.  She is quick witted, determined, strong-minded, faithful, and dear.  She leaps over brooks and helps with the potatoes for dinner.  She's the first girl from her little town to attend college and earn a  BA.  She works hard, provides for herself and her family.  She has dreams and ambitions truly in line with what a modern woman would want.

But when she gets married?  Her life is her family.  Not a thing about her changes.  Her imagination is as rampant as in her youth, but she gives her heart and soul to her husband and children and never looks back.  She urges them all to go to college and pursue their ambitions.  She never regrets the lack of career.  Not once.  She never feels like less of a person for staying at home.  No, she seems to grow ten-fold through her role as wife and mother.  Through the books I found my ideal form of feminism.  No bra burning or men bashing, but rather loving, embracing, imaginative feminine gentility.

I curled up with one of these books this weekend and was delighted to be reconnected with my old friend again.  So many characteristics of her resonate within the framework of who I am.  I realized that I still want to be Anne and am unbelievably grateful for the foundation she gave me as a girl.