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Favourite Book's First Line & Odds Are We're Going To Be....

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Blog City – Day 115 June 26

Prompt: Take the first sentence from your favorite book and make it the first sentence of your Blog entry.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice (1813)

I love Pride and Prejudice. There is something so wonderfully classic about it. This thought is said with some sarcasm tipped toward a mother who wants to see her daughters well married. But money is not everything if there is not love and affection. Elizabeth is a strong character who is bound and determined to hold out for that - despite the fact that Mr. Darcy is very wealthy, she turns down his proposal mainly because he tells her it is beneath him to marry her. Not very romantic. Given her time and circumstances women were expected to marry and raise a family, being an independent women was not even a consideration - even women who wrote during this time often wrote under more 'male' assumed pen names. Like her characters, Jane Austin had an independent streak that did her well. And though she died a spinster she wrote and published several novels that still live on today. Their stories as strong as their characters.

We are the modern age. Women have more choice but their is still that societal pressure to marry and raise a family. Not doing so is not so darkly frowned on but there is a mark set on you. Part of me feels I need to explain why I have not had children or followed the more traditional expectations.

Women hold jobs outside the family and if it is balanced with raising children there is a subset of society that frowns on her for leaving her children to pursue her own career; but there is an equally dark subset of society that frowns on mother's who stay at home - in fact, it is women against women that this issue holds force. We are way too hard on each other - that is something that has not changed since Austen's time. Societal expectations still ring in your ears regardless of what the choices are that you make.

Personally I say follow your heart. Marry for the right reasons not because of pressure. Start a family for the right reasons, not because of pressure. Enjoy your life, for with that you will bring to it what is important and fulfilling and that in turn will improve the world we live in and it will improve the relationships we have wholeheartedly chosen to take into our hearts and lives. There is nothing sadder than seeing a broken family - unwanted children, love - less marriages. Depressing. Turning the world dark and broken.

30 Day Blogging Challenge

Today's prompt: Odds are we're going to be...

Mitch says to "Take this in any direction your twisted little minds dictate. I look forward to your responses."

So... odds are we're going to be... stranded here.
We both looked up at the house and felt the shiver run up our spines.
I reached for Robert's hand and he took it, glancing at me to see if I was ready. I gave him a pale smile full of the trepidation I felt. He squeezed my fingers reassuringly.
We moved together each step taking us closer and closer. I could feel my heart hammering in my chest and thought for sure it could be heard in the silence that vibrated around me.
"It's really not that bad," he whispered and I looked over at him, my brows raised.
"Not that bad, you say. And what are you expecting?"
"Well, there's my mother?"
"She still lives here?"
"Well...kind of..."
"What do you mean, kind of?"
"It depends on what kind of spiritual plane she's on.
I swallowed, then repeated, "spiritual plane?"
"Yeah, sometimes she's here and sometimes she likes to visit other dimensions."
"Dimensions? Like, how do you mean exactly."
"Well... sometimes I am talking to her and she just fades..."
"Fades?" I fought to keep my voice calm.
He laid his hand on the door and twisted the handle. Pushing it open, the hinges groaned from disuse.
I looked beyond him into the dim light. The hallway glowed iridescent blue, pale and shimmering.
"I thought you said your Mother was... gone."
"She is. Died three years ago, but she likes to.... Carolyn... where you going?"
I could here his voice calling on the wind and I swore laughter rose up around me. My legs carried me as fast as they could. Stranded or not. I was not staying here.