Looking for Marcia Brady
When I was young I had the biggest crush on Marcia Brady. She was the beautiful, eldest daughter on the Brady Bunch TV series. The cute, down to earth girl was also smart and everyone liked her. As a shy lad, and somewhat scared of girls at the time, I was sure she was the type of girl who could bring out the best in a shy little boy like me. After all, bringing out the best in people is what she did on the TV show.
It was during those years I decided to find my own Marcia Brady. My efforts started during my middle school years when I developed my first crush on a real girl and yes she met my Marcia Brady ideals. I melted every time I got within 20 feet of her. The bravery of actually talking to her was out of the question, though. She was also a grade ahead of me and went to my church. So from a distance I was her number one fan and she probably never even realized I existed.
Many years went by and one of best friends started dating her after I graduated from high school. I mentioned my crush to him. We were at his house for a church hayride when he asked her and me to go back to his house to get something. As we walked back to his house I uttered my first words to her. And my heart raced. Eventually the two of them broke up.
Later, during one summer, she and I were at church, and I don’t know how I got the nerve, but I asked her to go out with me. To my surprise, she said yes. I was still in my dream world that this girl was so far out of my league. The mere thought she could ever be interested in me never even entered my mind.
We went out a few more times and the farthest thing from my mind was that she ever saw any potential of a relationship with me. So I just enjoyed my time with her. Then it happened. One of the greatest moments of my young life and you will probably think it’s a little strange. Then I got the “let’s just be friends speech.” She broke up with me! What? I never even had a clue she ever thought there was a possibility of us being a couple. It was great.
She taught me a lesson that I carry with me to this day: girls are people, too. They don’t fit into little boxes of ideas and dreams, but they are living souls just like me. I also learned that I didn’t have to look up into someone’s eyes; I could look straight into them.
Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s was a unique time in our history. We were coming out of a period when our country was losing hope and searching real hard to find our identity. Kennedy had been shot a few years before and the Vietnam War was causing all kinds of protests. Racial riots left many cities smoldering. Our President (Nixon) and Vice President (Agnew) had both resigned in disgrace. Then a man became President (Ford) who wasn’t even elected by the people. What’s worse, he pardoned the man we felt like had just betrayed us. You might say we were in the pits and where looking for our knight in shining armor.
As in many of our history’s depressing times our hopes would ride on the person who we believe holds that bright and shiny sword we call “change.” His words seem to flow with rhetorical magic that made us believe that fairy dust can replace hard work and pain. Through the air it flies and all our troubles would disappear.
On to the scene marched such a crusader. His winning smile and country accent were as far from our messed up political situation as you could get. With his Biblical faith, surely the Lord Himself must have brought him to us. The Washington political scene wasn’t in his resume. He wasn’t business as usual. He was so different and he had to be the answer. And so Jimmy Carter became our President.
It was the place was perfect. Everything you could possibly dream of was here. There was a beautiful climate and the bugs never bothered you. The fruit trees outside had the biggest, juiciest fruit you could ever imagine. One of the best parts, you never had to plant the first tree. Those trees were there when you got there.
The place was a park like setting. Wildlife was all around. You didn’t have to walk far to see it. Going hungry was never a problem because there was always something there to eat. Oh, the air! It was the freshest ever. You never coughed or sneezed. What could be better than this?
What did change look like? Carter offered amnesty for Vietnam War draft dodgers and he pardoned Oscar Collazo (who tried to assassinate Harry Truman) and 3 Puerto Rican activist who were involved in the 1954 assault on the House of Representatives. In the campaign he pledged to reform the tax system but gave very little effort to that cause.
He feuded with fellow Democrats in Congress. Gas prices doubled and he instituted price controls (a move that Nixon used that failed miserably) which caused long gas lines. Unemployment was high. Inflation and short term interest rates both climbed to 18%. Iran took 52 American hostages and Operation Eagle Claw (an attempt to rescue them) was a complete failure.
Carter’s “Rose Garden” strategy (staying locked up in the White House) and “Malaise Speech” (an attempt to say Americans had a crisis of confidence) were not received well.
Four years later Jimmy Carter was turned out of office because we came to realize that fairy dust needs a few more ingredients. Sometimes what we wish for is what we get and when we get it there is a bitter, not sweet taste to it. Maybe it’s not something we should be looking for but Someone.
When Adam and Eve roamed the earth they truly lived in paradise. It was a perfect world and a perfect place. They only had one rule. But they wanted a different world. They wanted to know the only thing that was forbidden to them. It wasn’t too long after they crunched on this forbidden fruit that they were to feel the after effects of their actions. The truth they learned did not make their world better. They would be forced out of their little paradise forever.
By the way, I read Maureen McCormick’s (the girl who played Marcia Brady in the TV series) book Here’s The Story. You know, she spent most of the rest of her life, after the Brady Bunch, working so hard at not being Marcia Brady. Even she didn’t want to be my dream girl.
Sometimes we have expectations that can never be fulfilled. We think the world can be such a perfect place if we meet that perfect someone, or if something would just change, or if biting an apple could make us as smart as God. The simple fact is, God gave us one day at a time to enjoy. To enjoy it fully we should take it as God presents it to us, not as we wish it would be.
Prayer: Dear Mighty Father, often I have my preconceived thoughts of where my direction and hope should lie. Thank You for those times You have let me fall flat on my face so I could realize I was headed in the wrong direction. Let me be wiser today because of the bruises of yesterday. Let me not forget that You should be the someone I should be looking toward and help me to never want to change that. Amen.
