Pollyanna

A woman whose smile is open and whose expression is glad has a kind of beauty no matter what she wears.

Anne Roiphe

I think because I loved Hayley Mills, I loved the movie Pollyanna when I was growing up.  I just thought she was adorable with her blonde curls and button nose.  (I was a little alarmed when I found out she was in reality older than my mom...not so much a little girl anymore.)


Anyway.


I loved Pollyanna.  I loved her message of being glad.  She made a game of it.

The glad game:

"You don't seem ter see any trouble bein' glad about everythin'," retorted Nancy, choking a little over her remembrance of Pollyanna's brave attempts to like the bare little attic room.  Pollyanna laughed softly.

"Well, that's the game, you know, anyway."

"The--GAME?"

"Yes; the 'just being glad' game."

"Whatever in the world are you talkin' about?"

"Why, it's a game. Father told it to me, and it's lovely," rejoined Pollyanna. "We've played it always, ever since I was a little, little girl. I told the Ladies' Aid, and they played it--some of them."

"What is it? I ain't much on games, though." Pollyanna laughed again, but she sighed, too; and in the gathering twilight her face looked thin and wistful.

 "Why, we began it on some crutches that came in a missionary barrel."

"CRUTCHES!"

"Yes. You see I'd wanted a doll, and father had written them so; but when the barrel came the lady wrote that there hadn't any dolls come in, but the little crutches had. So she sent 'em along as they might come in handy for some child, sometime. And that's when we began it."

"Well, I must say I can't see any game about that, about that," declared Nancy, almost irritably.

"Oh, yes; the game was to just find something about everything to be glad about--no matter what 'twas," rejoined Pollyanna, earnestly. "And we began right then--on the crutches."

"Well, goodness me! I can't see anythin' ter be glad about--gettin' a pair of crutches when you wanted a doll!"

Pollyanna clapped her hands.

"There is--there is," she crowed. "But I couldn't see it, either, Nancy, at first," she added, with quick honesty. "Father had to tell it to me."

"Well, then, suppose YOU tell ME," almost snapped Nancy.

"Goosey! Why, just be glad because you don't--NEED--'EM!" exulted Pollyanna, triumphantly. "You see it's just as easy--when you know how!"

Sometimes The Glad Game annoyed people around Pollyanna (her aunt). People now refer to someone who's too cheerful, too saccharine, too much as a Pollyanna.

But I like her.


I think there's something to looking for the good in situations.  It's not easy but does lessen the sting a little of unpleasantness.