Jo's speech

I'm nearing the end of Little Women.  

In Chapter 43, Jo is speaking to herself and her speech is soooo profound that I want to forever remember it by putting it on my blog.

Also, after reading her speech, I honestly feel that I could sit down and have a good cry.  Thank you, Jo!  You are a fabulous fictional friend!!!

"An old maid, that's what I'm to be.  A literary spinster, with a pen for a spouse, a family of stories for children, and twenty years hence a morsel of fame, perhaps, when, like poor Johnson, I'm old and can't enjoy it, solitary and can't share it, independent and don't need it.  Well, I needn't be a sour saint nor a selfish sinner, and I, daresay, old maids are very comfortable when they get used to it, but --" And there Jo sighed, as if the prospect was not inviting.

"It seldom is, at first, and thirty seems the end of all things to five and twenty, but it's not so bad as it looks, and one can get on quite happily if one has something in one's self to fall back upon.  At twenty-five girls begin to talk about being old maids, but secretly resolve that they never will be.  At thirty, they say nothing about it, but quietly accept the fact and, if sensible, console themselves by remembering that they have twenty more useful, happy years in which they may be learning to grow old gracefully.  Don't laugh at the spinsters, dear girls, for often very tender, tragical romances are hidden away in the hearts that beat so quietly under the sober gowns, and many silent sacrifices of youth, health, ambition, love itself make the faded faces beautiful in God's sight.  Even the sad, sour sisters should be kindly dealt with, because they have missed the sweetest part of life, if for no other reason, and looking at them with compassion, not contempt, girls in their bloom should remember that they, too, may miss the blossom-time, that rosy cheeks don't last forever, that silver threads will come in the bonnie brown hair, and that, by and by, kindness and respect will be as sweet as love and admiration now."  ~ Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, pages 530-531