Gone With The Wind
Dear Priscilla Bennett Friends,
Tonight we had a family barbeque, and there were twelve for the cook out. Harry cooked hamburgers, hot dogs, ribs, chicken and lots of vegetables on the grill for everyone, and it was delicious. I used paper plates and napkins left over from the 4th of July celebration and made a blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream on the side, while Reilly picked up all the scraps pretending to be a vacuum cleaner. We talked about the eclipse that’s taking place tomorrow, and I hope all of you have the appropriate sunglasses. The last word is, “Don’t look at the sun.” Everyone here seems to be so busy with work and childcare, we didn’t think we’d have much time to pay attention to it. Harry said, “When it gets dark and I can’t garden, I’ll notice.”
This reminded me of Katie in my novel and of how hard it was for her to cope with domestic violence—refusing to face reality until she absolutely had to. I always loved Scarlett O’Hara’s response in Gone With The Wind when she said, “I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow.” Denial is a wonderful tool until it’s not. It cushions us, gets us ready for the next step and keeps us from going crazy. It let’s reality seep in slowly like the sun rise according to what we can handle—oozing it out in small degrees—pushing back the fog. If we get overwhelmed, we can back away—regress and re-tank in order to move towards the light. That’s what I saw Katie doing over and over until she was able to break free.
Take good care of yourselves,
PRISCILLA BENNETT XOXO