Well, I heard the news today, oh boy...

I got up, switched on the radio, and heard what's going on in the world. After a moment's indignation (they are not going to let people bring WATER on planes any more?!?! they're going to have a lot of dehyrdrated, angry, headachy people on their hands...) it was as if a switch clicked over to a different position in my brain.

Suddenly, I thought: It's Mrs. Miniver time.

I probably have to explain that for anyone who's not seen the movie. "Mrs. Miniver" was a WWII era movie, set in Britain, chronicling the effect of the war on a middle-class family. Mostly seem from the POV of Mrs. Miniver (the wife and mother).

In the course of the movie, they wind up suffering bomb damage to their house, they have to move to an Anderson shelter in the backyard, Mr. Miniver is called up to help with a dangerous Channel crossing, and Mrs. Miniver confronts and captures a German would-be infiltrator. (there are a couple of other things I could add, but those would be spoilers.)

I realize the movie is in many respects an oversimplification and probably is viewed cynically by some as propaganda today. But one of the faults I think of post-modern culture is its tendency to make everything as antiheroic as possible - rather than the earlier technique of glossing over the warts and wrinkles, a lot of the po-mo attitude seems to show ONLY the warts and wrinkles.

And I think, I think we need some kind of a stiff-upper-lip in the world today. We need to tell ourselves to be "brave and decent people" (which was how the trailer on the video I rented of Mrs. Miniver extolled the family and the people in their village).

The thing is, I've read so many "Home Front in WWII" books and seen so many movies set in that time, that my mental image of what non-combatants do in wartime has a definitely 1940s tinge. I could imagine myself bravely slinging my gas-mask bag over my shoulder as I head out to go to work. I can imagine myself cheerfully dealing with gas and food rationing.

But in modern times, there's not really any kind of "home-front" equivalent. We're not being asked to save our tin cans, or pour bacon grease into containers for munitions manufacture (which is probably good; I wonder if it gave people pause in the 1940s to think that their used grease was going to go to bomb Dresden...).

The only thing I can remember - and this was not too long after Sept. 11, 2001 (in fact, too QUICKLY after Sept. 11, 2001) - were the cynical television advertisements using the phrase "now more than ever." I am unwilling to believe that if I do not buy a new car right now, the terrorists win. Give me something better than that. Give me something where I feel I am making a contribution, or making some kind of a sacrifice.

And even though some people today might interpret the rationing, and the asking to save tin/grease/go out and collect milkweed fluff* as a way of the government distracting the populace from what was really going on, I think it does play an important psychological role.

I know for me, doing something concrete - something I can put my hands on, something I can point to - works better than doing nothing (or doing something intangible like praying).

(*That is one of the fairly few memories of WWII my parents have. They were both young children - under 10 - at the time. Neither one remembers being scared about invasions or such or even doing plane-spotting. Neither one remembers any hardship from rationing - although my father did remark on getting "bean burgers" at a fair once, he seemed to think it was a treat rather than a privation. But they did remember being asked to collect the fluff from milkweed pods, which was used (I guess) as a substitute for kapok in life vests. Kapok came from South America, and with the blockades and U-boats, would have been harder and more dangerous to get).

So, I don't know. I'm going to try to remember Mrs. Miniver and not let myself get distressed. I'm going to remind myself that I live in safety, I have enough to eat, I have a good house. And I'm not going to worry about "the world coming to an end" - if it does, I want it to come to an end while I'm teaching, or doing research, or knitting a hat for Dulaan, or teaching youth group. And not have the end of the world find me scared and restricted and figuratively hiding under the bed.

As for knitting, I've mainly been working on the shawl edging. So nothing new to show or to really talk about.