Picture of the Day for 3/29/2011. I love the sentiment on this card, "I would always rather be happy than dignified." I was pleased to see that one of my all-time favorite English authors, Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855), is responsible for this quote. I'm not surprised. I suspect deep under the veneer of civility and proprietary required for women in their milieu, the Bronte sisters had a wild streak a mile wide. I totally relate.
In fact, the following passage from Margaret Maron's novel "The Bootlegger's Daughter" could very well be describing me:
Mother was what everyone called a "good woman" (as distinct from "a good ol' gal") even though I realized right before she died that a narrow streak of wildness lay just beneath her surface serenity. Most of the time she kept it repressed, but when it got out of hand...well, that little streak of wildness was what took her off to Goldsboro during World War ll and what later made her want to marry a widowed bootlegger with a houseful of motherless boys after the war.
Nine times out of ten, a good woman does exactly what her family and society expect of her.
That tenth time? Better stand back out of her way.
She'll burn down her world just for the hell of it, or risk everything she's worked a lifetime for on pure-out whimsy.
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