The Princess

"Never judge a book by its movie." J. W. Eagan

Bad Spellers of the World Untie (Stephanie’s Favorite Card)

“My mommy doesn’t have any white sheets.  Can I wear a sheet with balloons on it?”  Unnamed “baby angel” in the TV movie version of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

I was born in Alabama, but that’s not where I’m from.  My home now is with Kenny, but for a long time I was filled with wanderlust.  I wanted to go…anywhere, just as long as I was going.

My dad, Steve, is a Minister of Music.  My mom, Claudia, was a stay at home mom while I was growing up and is now a kindergarten teacher.  My brother, Clay, is in seminary.  Clay and I grew up all over, which is neat.  We have friends everywhere. Our time in Brazil has enabled us to speak to you in Portuguese, as long as you don’t expect us to string together too many actual sentences.

My first love was music, my second books.  When I was a child, the adults in my father’s family would just start singing…in harmony.  I loved listening to them and couldn’t wait for the day when I would be old enough to join in. I learned to love “It is Well with my Soul” and the old hymns about lands across the Jordan and journeys that were undertaken to get there.  I didn’t, however, know anything about actually reading music, which is why I chose to major in English.  Reading my way through college was perfectly fine with me.

My favorite books are ones that Kenny often considers to be silly or sentimental.  Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind tops the list.  It’s so much richer than the movie.  Kenny says that I’m crazy for remembering that Bonnie Blue Butler’s actual name was Eugenie Victoria or that Ashley’s was George Ashley Wilkes,  but he’s attracted to anything not involving Rhett Butler or Sir Lancelot, so I don’t pay him any attention.  He also makes fun of me for reading T. H. White’s The Once and Future King, but we both like Steven King’s The Stand, Louisa May Alcott’s Eight Cousins and Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game, which is full of twist and turns.

I like movies with plots that curve also.  I haven’t yet shown Kenny Citizen Kane and he didn’t care for The Philadelphia Story, but he seemed to like It Happened One Night pretty well, so maybe I’ll nudge him out of that anti anything made before the 1970’s stance of his yet!

I may never be responsible for changing Kenny’s taste in movies, but he is responsible for adding to the type of music I listen to.  I’m a very “showtune-y” kind of person, Richard Rogers and Andrew Lloyd Webber being my favorites, especially The Sound of Music and Evita.  In high school, I was in a musical theatre class and walked around constantly singing “If I were a Bell” and “Take Back Your Mink” from Guys and Dolls.  My Bible study leader introduced me to James Taylor’s “You’ve Got a Friend” and “Fire and Rain”  My father let me swipe his Anne Murray and Carly Simon CD’s and I still find myself singing the opening lines to “Just Another Woman in Love” or “Comin’ Around Again” every once in a while. 

It was at a concert by the college’s chamber choir that I first heard “In the Bleak Midwinter”, which remains my favorite carol. When I married Kenny, however, I suddenly became part owner of an extensive CD collection.  Any type of music you could think of was on his shelves.  So, I began with the groups he liked the best and discovered Dennis DeYoung’s “Desert Moon” and “Babe” as well as Styx’ “Crystal Ball”, the chorus of which I now sing over and over to drive Kenny to distraction.  I started listening to Cher and now turn on “Just Like Jesse James”, “If I Could Turn Back Time” and “Dark Lady” while I’m doing the dishes.  I put on Heart’s “Alone” and “Secret” when I’m feeling sad.  I also discovered Leslie Phillip’s “Powder Room Politics”, “By My Spirit” and “Libera Me” and entire collections from 2^nd Chapter of Acts and Keith Green.

Sometimes I think Kenny’s right.  He prefers songs from the Seventies and Eighties.  He likes the fact that they were often written by the people singing them live, not packaged in slick glossy videos such as the songs of today often are.  Sometimes I wonder though if I like those songs because I can sing them.  I can get into the shower, turn on the water and wail out “Rainy Days and Mondays” or “We Are the Champions” in a way that I never could with anything by Brittany Spears.

Hey, no offense but sometimes it’s just got to come from the heart.