My wife and I were trekking up the New England coastline on Monday, talking about going back to school. Growing up, Mindy’s family spent the final weeks of every summer in Maine.
Maine was the place she shopped for every first day of school outfit, got a new lunch box at LL Bean in Freeport, and hoped to have a Mary-Kate-and-Ashley-style summer fling with cute boys before the leaves began to fall.
Reminiscing, Mindy leaned her head back and looked out the window—“Back to school. There’s really no feeling like it.”
Charlotte Brontë revisits that first-day-of-school vibe in Jane Eyre. Asked about the prospect of attending school for the first time, ten-year-old Jane turns the idea over in her head: “I scarcely knew what school was . . . John Reed hated his school and abused his master; but John Reed’s tastes were no rule for mine.” In her mind, she associated school with discipline—certainly unpleasant. But hadn’t she also heard her nursemaid Bessie talk of school as a place to learn how to paint, sing, and speak French?—
“Besides, school would be a complete change; it implied a long journey, an entire separation from Gateshead, an entrance into a new life.”
That’s back-to-school hope. A new school year promises the possibility of a complete change. The fresh calendar stretches out before us like a long journey, a total separation from the person we once were and an entrance into a new life.
After brief consideration, Jane’s heart leaps, “I should indeed like to go to school.”
Mr. Lloyd, the physician who recommended the prospect of school, responds a bit surprised by Jane’s curt reply, “Well, well; who knows what may happen?”
Think back less than two months ago . . . In May, teachers and students alike couldn’t wait for school to be over. And yet, here we are approaching the end of July and we’re begin to feel more and more like giddy school girls with saddle shoes and pigtails squeaking, “I should indeed like to go to school.”
And why not? Our great Teacher encourages us that learning is our most natural posture. It is where we find our eternal place—“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt 11:29).
The new school year is fast approaching, and you’re the teensiest bit excited? Well, well; who knows what may happen?
A Taste of Maine in Your Kitchen.
Maine has the best blueberries I’ve ever tasted, and while you can’t beat the fresh ones you find at the local farm stands this time of year, you can actually get pretty close at most of your local grocery stores. We make wild blueberry pies at The Hutch using frozen wild Maine blueberries from Wymans—and they are fantastic.
Wild blueberries are smaller and pack more of a flavor. They come from low, scrubby bushes that grow scattered along the ground. At our place on Rutherford Island, you can find them growing along the road. But we’ve been able to find bags of Wymans in the freezer back home at the local South Carolina Walmart! They are great in pies, scones, or on top of pancakes.
Love this piece. Love Jane Eyre. Love the Bronte sisters. You are such a gifted writer as well. My first-day-of-school is way behind me, and that of my children, and that of my grandchildren even. But this piece does stir something in my memories of those days for all three generations to date. Keep writing.