Elinor Dashwood

People back in Jane Austen's day--women, at least--seemed to have a lot of time to just sit and think about their situation in life. I think this must have been the case for Austen herself. How else could she have become so brilliant? How else could she have examined the depths of her own self to create characters of such substance? As a writer, I know that nothing comes from nothing. You cannot create a character that does not include some part of you, however infinitesimal. Jane Austen, while she sat and wrote quietly to herself, must have had so many selves inside of her. She wrote her spirited self into Lizzy Bennet; she wrote her sophisticated, independent--and flawed--self into Emma; she wrote her wise self into Anne; and she wrote her patient, longsuffering self into Elinor.

I know she's just a character in a story, but tonight I raise my glass to Elinor Dashwood, who endured all manner of disappointment but always calmly thought of others' needs before her own. She knew that sometimes it is okay to be happy even when you aren't. That it was better to do something you could do instead of worrying about something you couldn't.

So really, I raise my glass to the idea of Elinor, and that little part of human goodness that Austen found in herself to write about.