Excellent Woment

If you don't know the novel of the same name, excellent women are those unmarried ladies who are so useful in their small, usually parochial, circle as to be indispensible: they know where the brass cleaner is kept, that cassocks ought to be laid flat to dry, not hung. They bring a wonderful dish to every potluck, don't need to use potholders, and are generally considered everyone's life saver, as in, thanks again for giving my cat her insulin shot--you are such a life saver. By the way, do you have any recipes for a good bundt cake I can fix for my in-laws? Really? You'll bake it? Sure it's no trouble? Wow, thanks a million--what would we do without you?

Excellent women are becoming an endangered species, what with one thing and another. But for those of you familiar with the type, and familiar with this novel by Barbara Pym, the too-little-known genius who out-Jane Austens Jane Austen, take note: I have been having a profound experience of the other end of the Excellent Women spectrum, as when Mildred and her old friend go shopping for new dresses and the friend goes for another green pullover, just like her old one, while Mildred tries to get her into something different and more flattering. The friend says, 'What's gotten into you Mildred? Who cares if it suits me. I always wear green pullovers,' or something to that effect.

I, too want to shake someone, shout at them, 'it's Spring! You're alive, you didn't die from your recent illness, it's going to be Easter in a week--wear something different, talk about something new and different, or at least smile and go outdoors. Realize, for once, that life and its details do not have to always be usual, normal, same'.

Unfortunately I seem to be the only one feeling this way. Everyone else--the newspapers, current events, politics, people around me, seem to be trudging along as though nothing will ever change, telling ME in reply that I am strange, and don't I know they always wear green pullovers. Sigh...