About Disaster as Part of the Deal

Post 945:

I’ve been reading through some of the work of Zane Grey. He’s a good writer you should check out if you want some stories of the pioneers in the late 1700s and early 1800s. If you weren’t in the original thirteen colonies, nothing came easy. (It was even worse)

Hard living makes for some great yarns.

I’ll talk specifically about Betty Zane, the tale (some of it true I guess) of the Zane family and their friends out at Fort Henry in the West Virginia territory on the Ohio River. The writing is purposeful and free of artifice, as were the people living out there at the time. This includes the pioneers and their Native American friends and foes. This was hotly contested land and there wasn’t time for a lot of nonsense. You either played your part or you didn’t make it.

Whatever we want to say about modern society and the improvements we’ve made, there’s no doubt that a certain softness has set in. People back there and then lived cozy with the idea of death around the next bend. They had to, otherwise there would simply be no way to get on with the day.

And yet if there’s anything to be gleaned from Betty Zane, she lived as full a life as anyone can imagine. She was a hero during a siege by the Natives and the British. She managed to be educated and fall in love and have a heart while staying a tough woman on the frontier. You get the sense that there were many like her, and to get the honor of her hand you had to be a man worth his salt.

The frontier was an equalizer. Being rich wasn’t a lot of help if bandits decided to cut you down. Disease could take anyone. I’ve lived near that area. It’s plenty cold. I still don’t know how people did it back then.

But that’s what I’ll come back to. We’re soft. I am, anyway. The fact that I run a few miles a day ain’t much compared to these folks. Their best friend or brother would get kidnapped by thieves or a warring tribe and they’d just have to get on with things until they could get their revenge, if ever. Disaster was part of the deal. This allowed them to grow a tolerance, I guess. People can get used to a lot. They are malleable one way or the other, I find. These folks had real freedom and by God they were going to live in it, dangers be damned.

I find Betty to be an inspiring character. She merits respect and admiration, but she’s not one-dimensional. Like anyone troubled in love, she turns into a bit of a mess at times. It’s nice to know that even out on the edge of civilization, it’s still hard to pull off a solid date with someone you like. People are malleable; in other ways, we never change.

I recommend some frontier reading. It might give you fresh perspective, and if not, there’s nothing wrong with some good old-fashioned adventures. Get it. Cheers and see you after.