July 5, 2005

What, me worry?

I just tripped over an absolute treasure. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote an extraordinary letter to his 11 year old daughter while she was at camp, giving her advice about things she SHOULD worry about and things she SHOULDN'T worry about. Gorgeous:

AUGUST 8, 1933
LA PAIX RODGERS' FORGE
TOWSON, MATYLAND

Dear Pie:

I feel very strongly about you doing duty. Would you give me a little more documentation about your reading in French? I am glad you are happy-- but I never believe much in happiness. I never believe in misery either. Those are things you see on the stage or the screen or the printed page, they never really happen to you in life.

All I believe in in life is the rewards for virtue (according to your talents) and the punishments for not fulfilling your duties, which are doubly costly. If there is such a volume in the camp library, will you ask Mrs. Tyson to let you look up a sonnet of Shakespeare's in which the line occurs Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds....

I think of you, and always pleasantly, but I am going to take the White Cat out and beat his bottom hard, six times for every time you are impertinent. Do you react to that?...

Half-wit, I will conclude. Things to worry about:

Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship...
Things not to worry about:
Don't worry about popular opinion
Don't worry about dolls
Don't worry about the past
Don't worry about the future
Don't worry about growing up
Don't worry about anybody getting ahead of you
Don't worry about triumph
Don't worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault
Don't worry about mosquitoes
Don't worry about flies
Don't worry about insects in general
Don't worry about parents
Don't worry about boys
Don't worry about disappointments
Don't worry about pleasures
Don't worry about satisfactions
Things to think about:
What am I really aiming at?
How good am I really in comparison to my contemporaries in regard to:
(a) Scholarship
(b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them?
(c) Am I trying to make my body a useful instrument or am I neglecting it?


With dearest love ...

Posted by sheila
Comments

I like that; I may steal some of that when we send daughter off to camp this year.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at July 5, 2005 2:17 PM

I need to listen to him when he says:

"Don't worry about insects in general."

Posted by: red at July 5, 2005 2:44 PM

That's great. I'm going to copy that for my 13 year old daugher.

Posted by: Carl V. at July 5, 2005 2:54 PM

Of course, "s"'s aren't actually insects...uh, I'll shut up now. ;-)

Posted by: Dave J at July 5, 2005 5:46 PM

"..but I am going to take the White Cat out and beat his bottom hard, six times for every time you are impertinent."

Make a move and the bunny gets it.

And I would have mentioned that insects are a seperate class of the phylum Arthropoda than the Arachnida.. but Dave got there first. :p

Posted by: peteb at July 5, 2005 6:01 PM

Towson Matyland?

How Vety Intetesting...

hee hee hee...

:)

Posted by: Wutzizname at July 5, 2005 7:54 PM

What I love about the letter is how witty and gentle and yet adult it is. I never could stand baby talk, when I was a kid. I would have preferred something I don't quite get, but would appreciate more later.

Posted by: kathy at July 5, 2005 10:15 PM

Who said anything about "s"s, DaveJ? I was thinking more about "wb"s, two of which I had to kill in the last 2 days. It is always best to assume that I actually DO know what I am referring to. Especially when it comes to my own life. Just a hint.

Posted by: red at July 6, 2005 1:24 AM