I don't see why our society thinks that doing something fun is considered "stealing time". When I had finally found the time to sit down and think about what I wanted to do for bliss time, I had no clue where to start. I am always running around fulfilling obligations to other people and to work and school, but I realized that I never take any time to myself. I'm always so busy fulfilling obligations that I don't even really hang out with my friends, unless we're doing schoolwork together. It's no surprise I feel so lonely and stressed out all the time. I always put everything and everyone else before myself. I realized that I need more than a few hours of uninterrupted bliss: I need an entire vacation. But for now, I settled with this:
For my personal bliss I decided to watch the 2009 TV adaptation of Jane Austen's "Emma". I am a huge Jane Austen fan, and I think that Emma is probably the one of her heroines that is most like myself.
Emma is friendly, charming, eccentric, stubborn, a bit spoiled, a good judge of character, and fancies herself a matchmaker- though she says that she will never marry herself, unless she is truly in love.
She successfully marries off her older sister to one of their childhood friends, John Knightley, and then proceeds to marry off her governess to a wealthy widower, Mr. Weston, in their town. She then befriends a young woman named Harriet, whose lineage is a mystery (leaving everyone to assume that she is an illegitimate child). Emma, believing her to be the daughter of nobility, takes her under her wing and tries unsuccessfully to marry her friend off to an arrogant clergyman who is actually in love with Emma.
Due to the combination of her over-confidence in her ability to read people, and her lack of attention to herself, she inadvertently hurt her friend and embarrassed herself.
She then meets Mr. Weston's son, Frank Churchill, who was taken in by his aunt as a young child, whom she had been fantasizing about meeting for her entire life. He immediately shows interest in her and flirts openly and carelessly. When his aunt, who is sick, makes him return to her, Emma finds that she is not at all in love him, though she did enjoy his company. When he returned she was afraid that he was in love with her, but was relieved when he did not seem to be so.
Emma then, thinking that her friend Harriet was falling in love with Mr. Churchill, encourages her to pursue him. However, Emma later finds out that Harriet did not like Mr. Churchill, but instead fancied Emma's closest friend, George Knightley, (the elder brother of her sister's husband). After that Emma finally realized that she was in love with Mr. Knightley, and curses herself for her blindness to her own feelings.
Thinking that Mr. Knightley is indeed in love with her friend, she reluctantly lets him make a confession to her. Only he confesses that he is in love with Emma, and she consents to marry him. She later finds out that Harriet accepted the proposal of an old friend of hers, who is in charge of the farm on Mr. Knightley's estate.
I think that I relate so well to this story because often it feels like my own life is a hectic heart-wrenching drama as well. My own friends often ask me for advice in the romance department because I am typically very observant of people's behavior, and am usually very detached from the outcomes. But when it comes to myself I am at a total loss, just like Emma. I have had the desperate guys pursue me, and I have also been with men that I honestly thought I should be in love with. The one big difference in my story and Emma's is that my Mr. Knightley always seems to be so elusive. I constantly think that if he is already here, that I can't help but be oblivious to it.
I am drawn to Jane Austen's novels time and time again because the characters are always so rich, and she describes so many different types of relationships that it's not only educational in the way of experiencing another culture, but it's informative of how relationships are always so different. No two people and no two relationships are exactly alike. And sometimes you can even know a person all your life and never really know them until someone else comes along and interferes.
But I'm also a hopeless romantic, so watching and reading about peoples trials and tribulations in love are also completely amusing as well. :3
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Breaking Rules:
I love color, so for my breaking of rules, I chose to break the rule of "do not make your subject an unnatural color!" It may not be realistic, but I think it's fun having a purple dog, or even a red one :3
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