lucy the valiant

some of my favorite childhood memories are of times spent at the home of our good friends from south africa. every day after school we would go to their home and spend hours playing imaginary games, reading books and creating masterpieces. i absolutely adored having a proper tea with karin the mother each afternoon. we would sit down with cookies and hot tea (on warmer days lemonade). afterwards she would let me play with her delicate porcelain dolls. it was a little girl's heaven...

my sister kat, nick, thomas and i would relive our favorite books over and over again. at the top of this list was the chronicles of narnia: the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. in their backyard we would travel to that magical land and battle against the evil witch and her army. i, being the youngest girl, was given the role of lucy. i did not want to be lucy. i wanted to be susan. lucy was played by a more than pleasantly plump little girl in the bbc version of the book. and she had this piercing whine of a voice. susan had arrows and a horn that could call help no matter where she was. lucy had a lame dagger and some potion that made people better. what a wimp.

today tess and i went to see the new version of the film. within the first 10 minutes i wanted to cry. i was flooded with visions of my childhood and my naive romance with the book. it's an amazingly beautiful tale that i can't wait to share with my own children. through our watching i realized that my younger aversion to being deemed lucy was completely misguided. lucy is the loveliest character in the story with the largest heart and the most bravery. if i could turn out like that small child, i'd be a lucky woman.

the new film is done extremely well and i highly recommend you all go see it (after you've read the book). take a tiny person with you, it'll make it all the better.