Everyone Needs a Marianne!

My sister Marianne sent me this thought-provoking poem in response to my earlier post, "Long Lost Poem."  Unfortunately, it was in the form of an attachment.  I smell a complication.

First of all, it took me 10 minutes just to figure out how to open the blasted thing.  Then it took me another ten to conclude that I can't simply copy and paste it into the blog.  So...



(Sigh, I wish I were as smart as Marianne, who is probably fully capable of copying and pasting and would never need to manually type poems into her blog...Plus her attachment had a cute little border around it.  I shudder to even think about it.)

I Didn't Want to Be Me

Author Unknown

All my life, I didn't want to be me.

I wanted to be like Harriet Wimpleton.

So I walked like Harriet Wimpleton

And I talked like Harriet Wimpleton.

And then one day I noticed a strange thing.

Harriet Wimpleton wanted to be like 

Connie Savorson.

She talked like Connie Savorson

And Connie Savorson was walking and talking like

Donna Heberson.

And so here I was walking and talking like

Harriet Wimpleton's version of Connie Savorson

Acting like Donna Heberson

And guess who Donna Heberson was imitating...

That pesky kid, Wanda Droolsen

Who walks and talks like

me.

This is, in my opinion, not as brilliant as good ole D.H. Lawrence, but still makes me pause.

The thing that gets me about this poem and its source is the irony involved.  Here's where I am turning serious for a short moment.  (No worries, it won't last.)

I've known Marianne since I was about 15 years old, four years before I married her good-looking brother. One of my first memories of her involves sitting on the floor next to her little sister (one of my best buddies since forever) watching her cut out and iron together a flannel-board story for one of her education classes.
 (She was a COLLEGE STUDENT.  Waaaayyy older than we were!)

She was (and still is) beautiful and creative and smart and funny and SO NICE!!!

I've observed her with her amazing husband as they worked hard to finish years and years of school, raise amazing, beautiful children, serve others around them, follow our Savior, and just basically set a good example.  She's always been a few steps ahead of me, and I'm watching her more than she knows.  I still feel in awe of her.  I'm still trying to be like her.  (In spite of the well-meant poem.)

So I like the poem, I really do.  And I get it.  I need to be myself.

But, some of the best parts of me are the ones I became as I tried to be like her.  

What a blessing to have a Marianne!  If you don't have one, I highly recommend mine.  Thank you, sweet sister.

(Next time you send me something, will you just copy and paste?  I'm sure you know how.)