Jen has this habit of selecting “Must Read” books and without hesitation, we join her this week in heartily recommending, “The Glass Castle,” by Jeannette Walls. In terms of a real-life story of beating incedible odds told without a trace of self-pity, it is, to quote Jen, “an example to us all.”
If I ever meet the parents of Jeannette Walls, I am going to have a chat with them … in this world or the next. Big time.
Boy, did they tick me off.
Jeannette was raised, with her three siblings, by very interesting, but very selfish people.
She is too nice to hold this against them, but I am not. Maybe because I have three young children at home, I am easily dismayed by a parents inability to take care of their offspring.
Before I go on, I’ll back up.
Jeannette is a very successful woman. She is able to look back at her life without rash judgement. She tells us the true story of her upbringing in various impoverished situations by two people.
Her Mother is a crazy free spirit who believed that her own happiness came before that of her four children. The world owed her. Her children owed her. She was a victim and believed she had no ability to step up and help herself or her family.
Jeannette’s father was a hard-scramble, creative alcoholic, who tried, but failed, to put his children’s needs before his own. At least he tries. He is also supremely screwed-up (I believe this is the scientific term) and fails his family and himself.
Into this fray come four children who are never adequately fed or clothed or sheltered. Homeless is a state of mind the parents embraced. No ties. No responsibility. This was the goal and it was a roaring success. Unless you were a small defenseless child who wanted comfort and security. Gee, who’d want so much?
Jeannette chooses, amazingly admirably, to focus on the positive aspects. There were some remarkably tender moments. One Christmas there are no gifts so her Father takes each child out to look at the night sky. He tells them to pick a star which he then gives to them.
They certainly learned resiliency. They learned how to pick up and keep at it when faced with terrible odds. There was no where to go but up and most of the kids stood up and faced the danger head on. They worked hard. Harder than their parents. They worked and worked and escaped and made solid safe lives for themselves.
I admire the lack of self-pity. When offered nothing they went and got it for themselves. They were not coddled. They were loved but not protected. They all made it on their own terms and if we don’t take our hats off to them we are crazy. “The Glass Castle” represented a dream that Jeannette went out and made for herself.
It should be an example to us all.