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The holiday season fills some people with hope, but it can send others into despair. That’s why I decided this was the right time to do a post about it. I have three inspiring quotes. My wish – that each one will help you feel a tiny bit more hopeful. Quote # 1 – I have been bent and broken, but — I hope — into a better shape.  Who said it? Charles Dickens Charles Dickens is a famous British author. Have you ever read or watched A Christmas Tale? It’s one of his most famous books. It’s the story of Scrooge, the ultimate miser, who’d rather save a penny than pay it to one of his employees. He’s visited by three ghosts – Christmas Past, Present, and Future. It changes his life, and it proves there’s still hope, even for an old miser!  Take a look at these two houses. The first is where Charles Dickens was born. It’s tiny! It begins with the first white door and ends after the two windows. Tiny! The other house is Gads Hill Place. Would you believe his father told him, if he worked hard enough, someday he could buy that house, or another one just like it? The best part about this story, 35 years later, Dickens bought that house when he discovered it was for sale. Dreams do come true!  His life wasn’t filled with sunshine and rainbows. When Dickens was 12, his father spent his way into a debtors’ prison at Marshalsea. His mother and younger siblings had to live there too. Dickens and his sister didn’t. They were in school, so they had to visit the family on Sunday. Later that year, Dickens had to quit school and work in a blacking factory. The second sketch is of him, slumped over a desk, exhausted. He worked ten hours a day, 6 days a week, pasting labels on pots of black boot polish. His pay – 6 shillings a week. That experience would shape the stories he’d write. You’ll find his story best told in David Copperfield. Note – I used a currency converter to change Dickens’ 6 shillings into pounds. In 2017 he would have earned £17.23 (pounds) or $21.60 a week.  I’ve been bent and broken” is a quote from Great Expectations. It reminds us that there’s hope, a silver lining, when we face challenges and work our way through them. Most people think of books written and published as one completed novel. That wasn’t true for Dickens. He wrote many of them as monthly installments in literary journals. Later they were reprinted as books. The best part – it made his stories cheaper and more accessible to a wider audience, beyond just the wealthy. For Dickens it gave him more time to explore and develop his characters and plots. He learned to leave cliffhangers at the end of each installment – to keep readers waiting for the next episode. And yet his plots held together across an entire book.  I’ve known and watched A Christmas Carol since I was little, but I’ve never wondered what Dickens looked like. The first painting was done by Margaret Gillies in 1843. Dickens was only 31, and he was busy writing the story of Ebenezer Scrooge. The second was painted by Jeremiah Gurney sometime in 1867/1868. Dickens was about 55. No wonder he looks so much older, and perhaps, more serious.  Dickens was prolific in his writing, and you can see that in the painting, Dickens’ Dream by Robert William Buss. The tiny black and white illustrations are the characters Dickens brought to life in his books. Prolific fits! The final photo is of his grave on the floor of Westminster Abbey. I was there, and shocked to find you could step on it. I couldn’t. This photo is from 2012 when England was celebrating 200 years of his stories. People are still turning them into modern movies. They’re still reprinting his books and selling them on Amazon 😊  Quote: Daily Inspiration | Inspiring Quotes Information: Charles Dickens - Wikipedia Gads Hill Place - Wikipedia Currency converter: 1270–2017 (nationalarchives.gov.uk) Quote # 2 – Hope springs eternal in the human breast.  Who said it? Alexander Pope  Alexander was a famous writer born in London, England in 1688. That was about 60 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. He died in 1717. That was almost 60 years before the American Revolution began. His parents were Catholic, and he was influenced by a series of laws that promoted the Church of England. They also banned Catholics from teaching, attending universities, voting, or holding government office. If you broke the law by doing any of those things, you went to jail. His aunt taught him how to read, and he went to several Roman Catholic schools in London. They were illegal, but tolerated. These are two of the houses Pope lived in. The first photo is recent. It’s of a building now known as the Mawson Arms. Way back when, it was the home of Pope’s parents. He lived in Mawson Row in Chiswick with them for 3 years, from 1716 to 1719.  During those same years Pope was translating the Odyssey by Homer. By 1719 he’d earned enough money to buy the second house, in Twickenham. The house and the gardens were torn down to make room for something new, but his grotto is still there. The quote ‘Hope springs eternal’ came from his poem An Essay on Man. When he wrote that line, he was writing about his Catholic faith and the hope for life after death. I’m Lutheran, but I believe in the same things about hope, life, and the afterlife. Here’s a list of the poems and stories he wrote during his lifetime, and the translations he made so that English men and women could read them.   Quote # 2 – Hope springs eternal in the human breast.  Who said it? Robert Frost  First photo from 1910. The second his 85th birthday in 1959. Robert Frost was a famous American poet. He was born 9 years after the Civil War ended. He died in 1963, one year before the Civil Rights Act was passed. It was supposed to end discrimination based on race, color, religion, or where you were born. Imagine being born just after the end of slavery and living to see the fight to end discrimination. I was 4 when Robert died, and I’ve seen a lot of change in my lifetime. Robert lived to be 89. I’m only 64. I wonder what I’ll see if I live to be 89, like Robert. His three biggest achievements – Robert is the only poet to earn 4 Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. In 1960 he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his writing, and the next year Vermont named him their Poet Laureate. I always think of a laureate as someone’s favorite poet, but they’re actually supposed to write poetry for them. In this case, for Vermont.  This is one of Robert’s homes. It’s in Derry, New Hampshire. He wrote many poems when he lived here, from 1900 until1911. It looks like a peaceful place to write, but his mother died from cancer, and he lost 2 of his children during that time. Life wasn’t perfect, but it fueled his work. The quote, ‘The best way out is through’ came from a collection Robert published in 1914. The poem, “A Servant of Servants, is not a happy one. I read it, and I felt depressed. It’s about a housewife who spends her day cooking, cleaning, and taking care of others. The only way out was to work your way through the day. According to the folks at Inspiring Quotes.com, hope and stubborn determination can get you through your troubles.  This is one of my father’s favorite poems. The other one is also by Robert Frost. Sorry, the only thing I’d change about this image. . . the woods. It should be more yellow. That’s the way he wrote it. The poem is “The Road Not Taken”’ as it was featured in Robert’s 1916 book, Mountain Interval. Here’s a list of Robert Frost’s work from Wikipedia. His first poems were published in 1913. His last, in 1969. What a legacy of work he gave us during those fifty years of writing! Poetry collections
 Quote: Daily Inspiration | Inspiring Quotes Link: A Servant To Servants, by Robert Frost Information: Robert Frost - Wikipedia
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AuthorWhen I write, I can only have one voice in my head, mine. A little noise is fine. But too much, or worse yet, WORDS, and I must change rooms or pull out headphones. Then I can write on! Categories
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