Terrible strength of the weak

I finally finished Gone With the Wind. If you haven't read it you really are missing out. It gave me a fresh perspective. As a northerner you get a pretty limited view of the civil war, and what southern culture was like. Margaret Mitchell did an amazing job of giving glimpses into the hearts and minds of people living in the south, both black and white. It allowed me to think about the culture from a different perspective. It is good food for thought.

There was a line near the end of the book that made me pause. "Suddenly she was standing at Tara again with the world about her ears, desolate with the knowledge that she could not face life without the terrible strength of the weak, the gentle, the tender hearted." The person she was losing was the wife of the man she loved, but the source of her strength. I need to think about this more. What struck me was how this woman that was physically weak, timid, and kind was the source of strength to her entire community. She was a great lady, as Rhett Butler put it.

It was a good reminder that strength is not always in the strong. There is a terrible strength in the weak, the gentle and the tender hearted. Those people, often children or the elderly, in our lives that we feel we have to protect and care for may be the source of our strength. What they lack in muscle they more than make up for in spirit. Their steadfastness, and tenacity gives us all hope, and something to strive for. These people that have lived through so much that is out of their control, but have continued to have hope for a future, continued to hope for love in their lives, they have a terrible strength. It is good to remember the weak, the people that we might often overlook. It is easy to forget that our lives really depend on them.