“Even though people may be well known, they hold in their hearts the emotions of a simple person for the moments that are the most important of those we know on earth: birth, marriage and death.”
-Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Ever since I watched The Kennedy's series on the History channel, I wanted to learn more about the Kennedy family. I especially found Jackie Kennedy interesting. So I read a book called America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by Sarah Bradford.
To be honest, I didn't like the writing all that much, but I found Jackie's life fascinating.
She was born on July 28 1929. She led an extraordinary life full of extreme joy and extreme grief. Jackie brought something new and glamorous to the White House when her husband, John F. Kennedy, became president on November 8 1960. She even went as far as to start the White House restoration project, forever leaving her mark.
In addition to this Jackie became a fashion icon, inspiring countless magazine articles. Even today her name goes hand in hand with good fashion sense. Pill box hats were her trade mark, as well as her bouffant hairstyle.
Jackie was an extremely complex person, a fact that all those close to her were well aware of. She enjoyed attention, but also highly valued privacy. This made her relationship with the press rocky to say the least. She was a very reserved and well mannered person, which made some people believe that she was snobby but she also had a great sense of humour.
Above all, Jackie was tough. She endured the death of two children; the assassination of her first husband as well as his brother Bobby, who she was very close to; and a whole string of other tragedies. Not to mention JFK's almost constant affairs and the pressure of being First Lady. And she did all of this with elegance and grace. That's what I must admire about her.
Jackie died before her time, on May 19 1994.
Jackie was loved not as the wife of the president, but as herself.
I have heard a lot of different opinions about last weeks royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Personally, I think it was great! I was one of those who got up at 5'oclock in the morning to watch it all. I even slept in front of the TV. And I stayed there all day long.
A lot of people have been pretty cynical about the whole thing. I've heard a lot of harping about how stupid people think it is. Well, I think that attitude is stupid! How often do we hear about news that is genuinely happy? William and Kate seem very happy and very in love and there is nothing wrong with celebrating it? Any accusations that they don't have a chance after what happened to William's parents are stupid. They are different people under different circumstances.
My favourite part was when Kate was coming down the aisle and Harry turned and whispered "wait until you see her!" to his brother. I also liked the carriage ride to Buckingham Palace.I liked every thing!
Truly a historic and happy day!
The other day me and my family were driving home from Barrie when a really old Rolling Stones song came on. I mean really old, I think it was a cover of an older song form the 50's. (I'm pretty sure it was before the Satisfaction days but don't take my word for it. I'm a Beatles girl :-) ) So any way me and my mom were rocking out when all of the sudden, out of the blue my brother says something to the effect of " This is stupid. I like music with emotion."
Whhhhhhaaattttt? " What's that supposed to mean? You don't think this song has emotion?" I demanded.
" Uh no. It's just some guy playing a guitar!" replied my brother.
First of all, I'm pretty sure that's what closed minded parents thought about Elvis back in the day, aside from being horrified by his dance moves.
Then my brother asked me what kind of emotion I thought there was in that song. He thinks he's so smart.
" I don't know- jubilation (yes I actually said that- it was an in the moment thing) excitement, freedom, happiness! " What was his answer?
" Happiness isn't a emotion, it;s a feeling." Which is two different words for the same thing, last time I checked.
But I'm not writing this post to pick on my brother. That's just a bonus :-p This whole thing got me to thinking. A lot of the music we listen to, my brother included, tends to be sad or angry. That goes for other art forms too. People got tired of listening to music that didn't express all the crap that was going on in the world around them a few decades ago. Which isn't a bad thing but I think that now people might think that happy music- heck happiness in general- is uncool.
But it's not! It's okay to be happy! It's okay to listen to music that just makes you happy, even if it's not protesting world hunger. That doesn't make you blind to what's going on, it just makes you a human being who needs to escape from it for a bit. Who likes to be happy.
HAPPINESS IS AN EMOTION!
I stayed up late last night to finish reading Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography by Susan Cheever, so I thought I would let some of my enthusiasm out by writing this post.
In case you were wondering who in the heck Louisa May Alcott is, she wrote the classic novel Little Women and many other novels. I found it very interesting that a lot of the book Little Women ( published in 1868) reads like a autobiography. In many ways the fictional March family is like the real Alcott family. Like the Marchs, the Alcott family consisted of a strong, loving mother four daughters and a father. Louisa's sisters Anna, May and Lizzie became the fictional Meg, Beth and Amy. Much of the plot of Little Women mirrors Alcott's own experince.However there are some major differences .
Susan Cheever brings out the point in her book that many people believe that Alcott is Jo second fictional March sister. However this is not true. While Jo was much loved by her family for her tomboyishness, Alcott was often punished for it. I also found it interesting that the father in Little Women was mostly absent, Alcott's father was often a driving force in the family, dragging them into his harebrained scemes..
What I found most interesting was that Louisa May Alcott was an independant women in a time when this was almost unheard of. She remained single and suppored her family with her writing.
Even though Louisa May Alcott died at age 56 almost 150 years ago, she is remembered through her work.
Hi everyone!
I haven't posted anything in a bit, but I thought I would talk about something that I saw on TV last night, namely the primer of a 4 part mini series called The Kennedys.
Apparently there was a lot of controversy about whether or not to air this show. I think the History Channel might have canceled it at one point but I'm not sure. I found it really interesting. I watched a special on TLC about the Kennedy's home videos and it caught my interest so I'm really glad that they decided to air the mini series.
So far I think the acting is pretty good. Barry Pepper, who plays Bobby, is so much like the real thing that it is almost creepy :-)
One of the things that really struck me in the first episode was the ambition of Joe Kennedy and the way that his whole family listened to whatever he said. I wonder how that is going to play out in future episodes?
The Kennedys is on the History Channel Sundays at 9:00. Watch it! :-)
Hiya!
This week I'm gonna tell ya what I've been reading! I thought I would wait to continue with this until I've read something good enough to actually have something to talk about. So I'm not rambling on. Like I am right now :-)
Any ways I've read two really good books lately.
So the first is Anna Karenina. I know, I know. Intense right? Not really. For those of you who aren't book nerds, Anna Karenina was written a couple hundred years ago by a Russian guy named Leo Tolstoy. It's about a woman named Anna Karenina (Quelle surprise! :-) ) who has an affair with a Count and has to deal with the consequences of her decision. At least that's what it's about on the surface.
A lot of people are scared of Tolstoy. This is understandable. An 800 page book written originally in Russian is a little intimidating. At least I thought it was. But I was wrong. Anna Karenina was surprisingly easy to read. I got completely lost in it. I think Tolstoy was very brave to write so frankly about a subject that was so taboo at the time. I sometimes find that books written in the same time period as Anna Karenina are a little unrealistic. I sometimes wonder if people really spoke that way. But in Anna Karenina I had not problem imagining the characters yelling at each other, laughing, crying.
It's definitely a great book.
I also just finished reading Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen. It was amazing!
It's about a young vet named Jacob who joined a circus during the Depression. It has a little bit of everything. It's happy, sad and moving all at once. I don't want to give anything away. All I can say is you need to read it!
There are some books that help us become who we are. These books change our way of thinking forever and keep doing so every time we read them. For me this book is Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.
We all know the story: a young girl writes a diary while hiding in a small attic apartment from the Nazi's because she happens to be Jewish. The first time I read it was the summer going in to grade 7. I was just a year shy of when Anne began writing her diary at the age of 13.Since then I think I've read it about 4 times. Each time I read it I learn something different. However there are a couple of things that always stand out to me. One thing I always appreciate is how Anne always finds the good in her situation. While living conditions must of us can't even IMAGINE Anne finds joy in the littlest things, like a glimpse of the sky through the attic window. Despite the horrible things going on around her, Anne found the good. She wasn't always optimistic, of course. Quite often she was terrified but she always tried to find ways to be happy. All of us need to do this. We need to stop being so caught up in our selves and find the joy that comes from simply looking up at a blue sky.
Another thing that always occurs to me when I re-read Anne's diary is how different the person we are on the outside is from the person we are on the inside. The people around her thought that Anne was light hearted and unthinking when in reality she was the complete and total opposite. We need to think about how other people could really be feeling before we judge.
I just finished reading Annexed by Sharon Dogar. It's the story of Anne Frank from the point of view of Peter Van Peels, the son of the family who were in hiding with the Franks. It's very moving and definitely a must read as is Ann's diary. In my opinion Anne Frank's diary not only gives voice to the millions of Holocaust victims, it also shows us the strength of the human spirit in the face of tragedy.
"Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy."
— Anne Frank
