The Scarlett O'Hara Theory

I love the feeling when you read a wide variety of books, you start making connections from one book to the next. This happened while reading Born Survivors and the connection it had to Gone With the Wind.

Anka, one of the pregnant mothers in these concentration camps, loved the book and movie Gone With the Wind. She always took to heart Scarlett's saying, "I'll think it about it tomorrow." It's a phrase she makes throughout the book. When Anka was in these camps and the pain and suffering was too terrible to bear at that moment, she would put the Scarlett O'Hara theory into practice of "I'll think about it tomorrow."

I've thought about this phrase while reading this book. I think the phrase can be good and not so good depending on different circumstances. From a person like myself who is not in deadly or dangerous circumstances and is a procrastinator in more than one thing, I sometimes would often say "I'll think about it tomorrow." It would give me that sigh of relief for a day until I would  have to think about it. Then the anxiety comes and I've got to figure it out so I don't constantly push it off. Sometimes it takes me a few 'think about it tomorrow' days.

But then there is the other side of things where in your circumstances it's actually beneficial and hopeful. I can't even fathom the concentration camp and what they went through. The book is very descriptive which was rather depressing but important. It's good to be aware that you have a lot more than you realize. It's an uncomfortable, good thing. But when faced with grief or a debilitating situation like they were in, one day at a time is probably the best approach.

This morning I listened to this podcast where she talks about the lens of focus we give in different situations of our lives. She recounted a woman who just lost her husband and now had to take care of her three children on her own. When she woke up and heard the kids in the family room making noise, all she could think about was "how am I going to do this?" Then the thought came to her, "just go make breakfast." It wasn't asking her to get dressed, do laundry, make lunches, etc. It just told her to do one thing and she knew she could do that one thing.

When we are going through a tragedy or a really difficult time in our lives, it is good to say, "can I just do today?" It's all about narrowing our focus of lens to a short amount of time instead of thinking way off in the future. You know you've thought too far ahead in the future when you start to feel anxiety about it.

I've already seen this principle in my life as of last week. It's a simple thing but it's helped. I have a new job where I get up early in the morning and teach ESL online. Last week was my first week and I was feeling really unsure of how to do any of it. This was a huge learning curve that I was not expecting and I felt really discouraged. Then the thought was can I just do today's classes? Just do those 3 classes. Don't think about the classes you'll have to do the next day. I was having a 'you can think about it tomorrow' type of moment.

And it worked.

I was felt really empowered that I could do it because I wasn't thinking so far in advanced. I'm so glad I'm learning this tool now to prepare me for whatever happens.

I guess Scarlett O'Hara was right about one thing after all. :)

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Have you seen this principle work in your life?