Long Before The Deer

  There is one thing good about problems.  They always help you to look for that elusive silver lining that everyone is always saying is there amongst the darkest clouds.  The gloom and doom can be assuage by finding one happy paragraph hidden in between the pages of an otherwise dire novel.  Not all is bad.  Discovering the termites had infiltrated my bookshelves and my books seemed to be an "end-of-the-world" situation.  I fretted over the fact that even though we have been fighting these critters since Hurricane Katrina, there appears to be no winning the war.  The fact that the termites became literary and attacked my books said volumes about their appetites.  They are voracious!  Son started ripping out the built-in book cases as I unloaded hundreds of antique books.  That silver lining was hard to find.

  My mind made up to look through the books and discard some, I sorted them into stacks.  The decision of which to toss, donate or keep was difficult.  I really needed more time and someone who has a keen eye to help me.  That ain't happenin', folks.  I am on my own.  I do not like this job except for the fact that I have found a few books that need reading!  My silver lining had been found.  A new desire to delve into a few of the dusty, old novels filled my brain.  So, I chose one to begin.

  "Bambi".  I did not even know that this was on the shelf.  Hmm?  Time to read this ragged novel that once belong to Aunt Elizabeth way back in the early 1920's.  Now before anyone thinks I am going to sit down and read a happy, little tale about a fawn, I shall explain.  Long before the now known as Disney version of "Bambi", another book was written.  Along about 1914, a noted author, Marjorie Benton Cooke penned a novel about a young woman and her haphazard adventures. Bambi is an impetuous young woman who marries a ne'er-do-well playwright and sets out to "find" a career to support him.  The story is rather sweet yet frustrating at times as today's reader cannot fully grasp why "Bambina" does what she does.  

  With the promotional overload of more modern tales, we are all jaded in our choices.  Gone are the days of classic novels that deserve to be read for pure enjoyment of the reader and not to fill the pockets of big business.  Books like Marjorie Benton Cooke's "Bambi" are lost in the shadows of the more popularized, flashy, movie versions of books by the same title. The classics are considered "old" and therefore not good.  Personally, I would rather hold a timeworn book in my hand and feel what the author wanted to relate than be bombarded with the current literary choices.  Dusty, old books are treasures.