Random thoughts on O Pioneers!

When Ivar is worried that Alexandra might have to put him in an asylum because of how he worships God he says, "You believe that everyone should worship God in the way revealed to him. But that is not the way of this country. The way here is for all to do alike." He probably means in that town, but that is how our whole country is today and not necessarily just with worship. Most people believe in freedom of religion and even one of my Articles of Faith tells us that this is true, but I am afraid that some of those who belong to the same church as me take the adage, "Only true and living church" to mean, "Only church." I think that the leaders of my church are doing a good job of trying to end this mentality, but the people don't always hear what the leaders are saying.. Plus, they say they believe this, but still act like everyone has to believe in and then join our church.

The problem with believing that all people should worship how God tells them to is where to draw the line. I can accept that some are Christian and some are Jewish and some are Buddhist etc., but what about the radicals of any religion; the Muslims who blow up building and people or the Baptists who protest at a fall war hero’s funeral. I don't think that we can really think like this and still be safe. There are also those serial killers who believe that God was talking to them, telling them to kill. I am not sure how to reconcile this.

Carl Linstrum comes back and Alexandra and him are musing over the fact that they miss the way the country used to be before it became successful. He tells her that the story of their lives is being rewritten all over again. He says, "Is n't it queer: there are only two or three human stories and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before." At first I didn't understand what was meant by this, but after some thought I believe that this is a lamentation over the fact that we no longer look to our elders as wisdom holders. We see them with frailty and as another burden to take care of. We do not seek advice from them. Young mothers do not ask older mothers for help with their children, they read books or watch television programs. Old mothers do not offer advice to young mothers. The same thing goes for men too, young fathers rarely talk to older men about how to handle the stress of a job, a family, church callings, etc. We can learn a lot from those who have already experienced what we are experiencing right now. I recently read that learning from the experience of other’s is difficult for people now because it is submitting to an authority and admitting that we need help.
Pride is the great sin of my generation which is what keeps us from seeking a leader and keeps leaders from trying to lead us. A perfect example happened in my life. When I had my first child I decided that I was going to nurse her. When I would try to talk to people about this the only response I got was that it was painful. This was not good news to me. It may have been true, but no one offered any advice on how to prevent the pain or even what to do about it. I knew I was ill prepared when she was born, but I tried it anyway. Well by the time I figured out on my own how to do it right I was in a lot of pain and even worse I didn't know how to cure it. Finally a woman in my ward told me what to do to heal, offered support during the healing process, and then told me how to prevent the pain the next time. I could have done a better job seeking support, but the little seeking I did yielded no fruit. I feel strongly that women have an obligation to other women to support and teach them about pregnancy, childbirth, and child rearing. Historically this was wisdom passed on by family members, but we no longer have families like we used to. I believe that one of the reasons that the Lord established the Relief Society so that young sisters would have a whole group of experienced women to seek support and advice from and all of us need to take advantage of this.

"If Alexandra had much imagination she might have guessed what was going on in Marie's mind, and she would have seen long before what was going on in Emil's." She was too busy with her own issues to see those around her. In that same paragraph Cather writes that her (Alexandra‘s) personal life almost always took a back seat to her work. I do this sometimes. I find myself being too busy to see what is going on in my house and then all of a sudden I realize that my children are being naughty or bickering with each other all because I was too busy to see that they needed some attention. I try hard to not say, I'm busy, or Not right now, very often to my children, and if I catch myself saying it more than once in a day I make myself stop what I am doing and be a mother. In the April 2008 conference Elder Ballard gave a talk and he quoted Anna Quniland about her experience of missing the moments with her children. She could remember a day that her children were sitting outside on a quilt only because she had a photograph of it, but couldn't remember anything about the day and regrets it. After hearing that talk and studying it I decided that I didn't want to have regrets like that and that I would make time to be in the moment and stop rushing to get things done. I realized that I love to have done things and not actually doing them. I wanted to have memories of doing something, but not actually take the time to make the memories. I am getting better at being in the moment.

O Pioneer! essay, contains spoilers!!!

O Pioneers! is the story of Alexandra Bergson, a woman who inherits her family farm in 1883 much to the consternation of her two bothers. Alexandra is a strong willed and determined woman who develops a tremendous vision of the future of the Nebraska Prairie. She is fiercely independent and clear-headed which helps her to become a wealthy land owner despite her brothers.
The book begins with a bleak description of the prairie in which the story takes place and the four main characters are introduced; Alexandra and Emil Bergson, Carl Linstrum, and Marie Tovesky (later Shabata). The first three are heading to their homes outside of town known as the Divide. Once home, Alexandra’s dieing father informs her and her two younger brothers, Lou and Oscar, that he is leaving Alexandra in charge of the family farm and they are to let her lead them. He wants her to continue what he has started by immigrating to America from Sweden and building the farm they live on..
Alexandra proves that her father made a good decision when he chose her to take over within three years of his death. There is a major drought and depression that happen and her resolve allows her to persevere when many of her neighbors give up and sell their farms cheap, and move back to the cities. This includes her good friend and bordering neighbors,. Carl and his family. The news that they are leaving hits Alexandra hard and she takes a deep look at the situation and makes a determination, against her brothers’ wishes, to go into debt to purchase some the neighboring farms that are being sold in hopes that some day the land will be profitable.
The story skips forward sixteen years. Alexandra was right. The land began to produce after the people learned how to farm it right and her and her brothers are quite wealthy. Emil who is fifteen years younger than Alexandra returns home from college with plans to go to law school. Alexandra has very high hopes for him and looks forward to what he will accomplish by not being strapped to the farm like his brothers and sister. We are re-introduced to a now grown up and married Marie. She is a beautiful, lively girl whom everyone likes, but her husband is a proud man who is not very well liked. He is insanely jealous of her and is always suspicious.
Carl returns to visit on his way to Alaska for a few weeks. Alexandra and Carl pick their relationship up as if no time had passed. Marie reveals how unhappy she is in her marriage and it becomes clear that she and Emil are beginning to fall in love with each other, but she is a very devout Catholic and will not compromise herself. Emil tells Alexandra that he is going to take a year off from school and spend some time in Mexico. Oscar and Lou confront Alexandra and Carl about their own developing relationship and their fears about Carl taking control of Alexandra‘s‘ land. Carl ends up leaving right away for Alaska and Alexandra and her brothers make a permanent separation from each other.
A year later Emil returns from Mexico. Everyone involved is more unhappy than the year before and there seems no hope of that changing. Emil and Marie find that their separation has not diminished their love, only made it stronger. They finally talk about it and he decides to move permanently away to Boston. Before he can leave his best friend Amedee dies from a burst appendix. While at Mass Emil begins to understand and be reconciled to the fact that he really needs to leave and goes to say good-bye to Marie for the last time.
At the same moment Marie has received the peace about Emil her soul had been searching for and falls asleep in the orchard under the Mulberry tree. This is where Emil finds her, he wakes her, and then lays down next to her. Later that night Marie’s husband, Frank comes home and finds Emil’s horse, but not Emil and Marie. He is convinced that he is finally going to be justified in his jealousy and bad treatment of Marie. He grabs his gun and goes looking for them. He stumbles upon them lying together in the orchard; he shoot and murders them both.
Months later Alexandra is still grieving in her way. She can’t seem to blame Frank and vows to work until she gets him pardoned. She blames herself for not seeing what was happening between Emil and Marie and for pushing them together in the first place. She is very upset that she has not heard anything from Carl, but while visiting Frank in prison she receives a telegram that he is waiting for her at her house and to hurry home. They take comfort in each other and decide to marry.