Jane Fonda -- Her Life So Far
Thu., February 7, 10:04 AM
It took me about a year to read Jane Fonda’s My Life So Far. I have the large print edition, so the problem wasn’t just my eyesight. The book was interesting, but my attention span is, um… distracted? (That’s a subject for another day, I think.)
Why would I read this book? I have never been particularly interested in this woman — not that I disliked her, but just kind of thought she was misinformed, or misguided, or misled. I’m not much of a movie fan, and I certainly had no interest in her workout videos. At the height of her notoriety, I was pregnant for the third time in three years. I was never very good at being pregnant, and I had two little ones to worry about by this time… I really wasn’t paying attention to celebrities in the news.
Nevertheless, you can often gain insights by reading the work of someone with whom you disagree. The first thing I discovered that we should have had more in common. We were, as it turns out, born around the same time. She’s a little older than I, but looks terrific. And we actually spent part of our teenage years living less than thirty miles apart.
Distance, of course, depends on more than geography; the Emma Willard School and affluence versus public schools and a bit of a struggle make a big difference to a child. As I read, I once again found myself being thankful for my parents — not perfect by any means, but never leaving any doubt that I was loved. Jane’s father was a highly talented actor, but he obviously had personal issues that were less than ideal. Her mother was a graduate of the Katharine Gibbs School, but she couldn’t transfer any of its benefits to her daughter, and I refer to something more than typing and shorthand.
There are some things I have never understood and probably never will. I just don’t get how people insist on procreating when they are incapable of loving children. The fact that their parents were no better informed can’t excuse it. The luxury of horseback riding doesn’t balance out parents who make you feel worthless and unloved.
That feeling of being different from all the other kids in school? That’s not unique. I was always different from all the other kids in one way or another; I didn’t have a close personal friend until I was in junior high school. (She is still one of my dearest friends, but our lives are very, very different.)
So, as I say, Ms. Fonda and I do not have a lot in common. She has made many choices in her life that I would never have made — as she never would have made many of mine. That’s okay. There are other things I do understand, like starting a business for one purpose — to fund her husband’s political organization — and discovering the enjoyment of running that business. Over the years, I discovered that being involved in a business, whatever business that might have been, was fun; working with a company that was just starting out was one of the most exciting kinds of job I ever had.
I enjoyed reading about the famous people Jane Fonda has met; I always like that. (I was also pleased that there was an index as well as a filmography. My idiosyncrasy is that I want to know where I am in time and place, and I need to know who’s who.) She makes Ted Turner into a person instead of just a name, and a fascinating one at that. She shows a side of Dolly Parton that we usually don’t see.
To my great surprise, I connected with her return to Christianity. As I wrote some years ago in A Question of Religion, religion or spirituality contributes to mental health. As long as you’re not trying to convert me, I have no trouble with someone else’s road to feeling better. But Jane Fonda doesn’t stop at finding Jesus. Her innate intelligence leads her to question what I have called the “paternalism of organized religion” and to seek out her own version of Christianity.
The book is very well-written, and it was not the first book that surprised me that way. (There must have been something good about those fancy private schools.) And though I might question the ways Jane Fonda got to where she is, I have to admire her goals — for women and children, for the earth — and her use of her resources to improve the world. Her “third act” is a winner.
