Should We Pity Miss Bates or Strive to Be Her?

Oh Miss. Bates. Often we see her in Emma  films or when we encounter her in the story we ignore her:

Find her annoying:

Or pity her:

But then something stood out to me this time I read it that made me wonder…

Hmm…

Maybe WE have always approached this character the wrong way and we should actually strive to BE her.

So let’s start at the beginning.

Miss Bates was the daughter of a vicar, he having passed on and left the family in an improvised state.

She isn’t known to be intelligent, witty, or wise.

She wasn’t considered beautiful when she was young and isn’t seen as such now,

She never was courted, engaged, or married.

Her youth passed by with no distinction.

She now is middle-aged and spends all her time taking care of her elderly mother.

 And she spends most of her time trying to stretch her dollars as far as they can go.

Yes, life seems to be pretty grim.

So why should we want to be like her?

Because, despite ALL this, despite her life and circumstances, this is how she is:

“And yet she was a happy woman, and a woman whom no one named without good-will[sic].”

And where does this happiness come from? How does she have such pleasant emotion in such a bleak situation?

“It was her own universal good-will[sic] and contented temper which worked such wonders.”

Yes, her happiness isn’t derived from objects, money, people, beauty, etc. She is happy because she wants to be happy…

And because she can find pleasure in everything.

“She loved everybody, was interested in everyone’s happiness, quicksighted[sic] to every body’s merits: thought herself a most fortunate creature, and surrounded with blessings in such an excellent mother, and so many good neighbors and friends, and a home that wanted for nothing.”

Yes, most of us would be complaining, grumbling, whining, or disgusted to have her life…

But that isn’t how Miss Bates react. Instead she is joyful in everything and thankful for all she has in her life, even though most would view it as nothing. She reminds me of the green onion girl from Veggietales. Always joyful in everything.

And because of her joyful spirit she finds herself enjoying “a most uncommon degree of popularity.”

And that’s why I believe we should strive to be like her. How much nicer would life be if we learn to love what we have? If we tried to be kind and compassionate to all? If we looked at the good in others and our life instead of focusing on the negative?

For more on Miss Bates, go to A Bit Pottery About Jane Austen

For more Emma, go to When You Shockingly Relate to Mr. Woodhouse

For more Cristina Garcia quotes, go to Optimum Image

For more Charles Dickens quotes, go to Trek the Halls with Bones and Scotty

For more L.M. Montgomery quotes, go to I’m the Happiest Girl on Prince Edward Island: Anne of Green Gables

For more bible verses, go to Each Illustration is a Little Story. If You Watch Them, In a Few Minutes They Tell You a Tale: The Illustrated Man

For more Steve Maraboli quotes, go to The Final Chapter

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30) Your Opinion About Your Body and How Comfortable You Are With It

Let me just say that I don’t love everything about me.

I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it either. So let’s go down the list.

Hair

Upside: My hair is a pretty shade of brown, a golden brown. It also is thick and grows fast

Downside: When I want it to dry it takes FOREVER. When I want it to be wet it dries instantly. It is normally straight, but there is a section that wants to just curl the opposite way. And a pinch of moisture in the air? Instant frizz. I have bangs and there is one section that will not lie flat no matter what, it always is sticking out. And any curl or wave added? Lasts about an hour then gone. My hair pretty much does whatever it wants to.

For more on my hair, go to That Girl is Poison

Eyes

Pros: I have beautiful green eyes that sometimes change to blue; you know the type of eyes everyone dreams off. Plus thanks to my Mexican heritage they are slightly almond-shaped.

Cons: I have to wear glasses, all the time. My eyes are pretty weak and I have to wear a high strength. I wish I had perfect eyesight, it would be pretty amazing to wake up and be able to see everything instead of blobby shapes.

I don’t mind the glasses that much, it just makes things a little more difficult like cooking, swimming, sports, costumes, etc.

For more on glasses, go to You Look Beautiful Just the Way You Are: How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)

Jaw

Chief Brody (Good): I have a cute little chin

Bruce the Shark (Bad): I have a small chin and small jaw. This meant I needed braces twice to fix all my teeth how they needed to be, and make sure none fell behind the others, along with making it hard to take big bites out of anything.

Skin

I’m Mexican, Danish, and Italian. Unlike my other siblings, I only inherited the Danish genes and therefore have pale skin that does not tan, but burns or remains light. Needless to say the sun and I don’t do very well together.

If it’s not making me sweat overtime, then it is knocking my out as barely anytime spent outdoors in it makes me extremely fatigued.

Height

I’m only 5’3. Besides from being the same height as Poison Ivy, there isn’t that many positives. People think you are younger, it is hard to find clothes that fit right, you are always being knocked into or passed over. Not to mention trying to see concerts or other things. It’s hard out there for us small ones.

For more on being short go to Ya Bothering Me

Body Size

My body size has never been exactly what I want. In my ratio of boobs to butt, my boobs are much smaller, making it hard to find dresses that fit right. I have abnormally large knees, causing difficulties when buying pants. I have a large but, but little hips. My torso or legs are not as long as I would like them to be. My stomach not as flat as I would wish. And I have an ugly belly button, because it was burned close as a baby.

In fact this displeasure caused me to become an anorexic back when I was 17. I’m better now, but I’ve had a few resurrections of the disease. And while I’m not 100% pleased with what I have, I no longer hate my body like I did as a teenager. Instead I’m just blessed to be alive.

It’s so easy to see what we see in the mirror everyday and hate on it, but never forget that with all your flaws you are beautiful.

So be yourself.

That concludes this 30 Day Challenge. I’m actually glad to see it over, writing about myself was nowhere near as awesome as writing about Disney, or reviewing horror films. It was a nice change, but if I was to do a 30 Day Challenge next year, I’m thinking books or movies.

I hope you all enjoyed it. If you missed out on a day, be sure to pop over to 30 Day Challenge: All About Me for the full month’s listings. Or you can go to Musical Madness to start the 30 Day Challenge from the beginning.

Comment below if there was anything about myself that I didn’t write about that you’d love to know and I will post on it!