March 9, 2010

 

Reading Our Own Material

I had lunch in the tavern Saturday, (someone has to test all the stuff we make, right?) and I had no company, so I mosied over to our gift store and borrowed one of our books, The Diary of Hanna Green Winslow. (Amazon says they only have one left, but we've got three or four, so buy it from us next time you're here.)

This Halifax girl, sent to be "finished" in Boston, at the age of ten, is nothing short of a little genius-maiden, right after the manner of Jane Austen or Abigail Adams. New England journal-keepers often wrote a few lines each Sunday, indicating the text that was preached on "Lord's Day," but consider this summary of her pastor's sermon, written by Hanna at the age of ten:

..his doctrine was something like this, viz: That the Salvation of God's people mainly consists in Holiness. The name Jesus signifies a Savior. He renews them in the spirit of their minds -- writes his Law in their hearts. Mr. Beacon ask'd a question. What is beauty -- or, wherein does true beauty consist? He answer'd , in holiness...

She goes on for another full page and a half, with greater attention to the subject of beauty, and the decidedly non-seeker-friendly way her minister describes the state of souls who have not embraced holiness. Throughout, she paints a picture of Boston life that is very much focused on the rituals of church-going, attending funerals, dances, and even "birth-day" parties. (I seem to recall a re-enactor somewhere having a prejudice against birthday parties, so if I hear the objection again, I'll have him take up the matter with young Miss Winslow.)

If you've ever had daughters, or sisters, it's fascinating, and pleasantly reassuring, to see that vanity seems about as perennial as the grass each spring, or the new moon each month. Hanna writes home to her mother, in Halifax: "Dear mamma, you don't know the fashion here -- I beg to look like other folk.."

The difference, as near as I can tell, from our own world is that vanity, today, seems something like a panther let out of its cage. It is totally unchained and unrepentant. Any advocacy for "inner beauty," these days, would feel like a 1950s home economics pitch, or the "inner beauty" would be about as deep as an admonition to "love your self." If your wife will let you, take a look at the spa ads, or the urban restaurant rags full of cosmetic surgery offers. The pitch is skin deep, literally, and the world it is creating is getting more and more savage and heartless. (Have any statisticians observed correlations between increased cosmetic surgery and increased abortion? Hmmm.)

Even the church, where this virtue advocacy is supposed to take place, doesn't have the courage to say what little Hanna Green Winslow's pastor said, without apology:

"..without holiness your beauty is deformity -- you are all over ...ugly and loathsome to all holy beings, the wrath of the great God lie's upon you, and if you die in this condition, you will be turn'd into hell, with ugly devils, to eternity.."

Whoah. Threatening the young and the beautiful with eternal ugliness. Call it backward if you will, but couldn't Lindsay Lohan, and her ilk, have used a little of this guidance, early on?

More of the Farm Journal --March 3, 2010