Great Expectations

In my twenties, I disliked the book "Miss Rumphius"; it was a staple at the Catholic school where I taught, and it had a flavor of preachiness that I found mildly irritating. To me, Catholicism seems to be about hairshirts and self-flagellation, and "the Lupine Lady"'s crazed quest to "make the world more beautiful" just reminded me of various annoying homilies, and I wasn't converted.

But now my daughter makes me reconsider certain things. For example, she makes me interested in birds, so I find myself at "the Raptor Trust" on weekends. That's something I wouldn't do if I didn't have Susie.

Rereading "Miss Rumphius" with my child, I notice how the protagonist quietly resists family life, resists marriage, and finds a way to explore the planet, although she is a single woman in the 1950s (or 1940s?) ....She hangs out with the Bapa Raja in an Indonesian fishing village, and she performs athletic feats in the Land of the Lotus Eaters.

I like these details. I also like certain unheralded bits of advice, at the start of the book: (1) Travel the world. (2) Live by the sea.

I think it's worth repeating these sentences--over and over. It's not clear what Susie is absorbing; mainly, she seems to notice that the Lupine Lady is wearing a dress, and so the Lady is "like Princess Elsa." That's a text-to-text connection--and I'm happy to acknowledge the insight.

"Rumphius" is the book in our minds--again and again--at least for now.

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