While the events of any decade shape those growing up in it, I believe the decade of the 60's had an unusually strong influence on those of us who were young at that time. I began kindergarten in 1961 and graduated from 8th grade in 1970. I remember my mother's reaction when she received a phone call telling her that the president had been assassinated. I remember the Beatles. I remember the race riots that were occurring in Milwaukee and other cities. I remember the distrust of the younger generation for the older generation and the evils of the Vietnam War. I remember a man landing on the moon. I remember being afraid of being a teenager because I understood them to be disrespectful of the "Establishment." Their music was scary; their clothes were scary; their activities were scary.
The backdrop of the sixties in the book The Wednesday Sisters was of particular interest to me. My memories of those events are those of a child while the author uses the point of view of young adults who are working to discover their talents and place in society. The young women in the book are also shaped by their experiences of the events and the tumultuous times in which they live.
Some good things came out of that decade. I am glad that interracial marriages are no longer considered taboo and, in fact, barely noticed. I am glad the women can run in marathons and participate in a number of professions tradionally thought to be only for men. However, I am saddened that a woman's primary purpose, to be a completer of her husband and to pour into the lives of her children has been eclipsed by her other accomplishments in society. I am saddened that boys and men are made to feel like second class citizens because the women are no longer looking for their knights in shining armor, or maybe not so shining. I am saddened because Scripture is not the standard by which we judge the value of who a person is or what a person does.
As a child of the sixties, I felt keenly the instability of a culture of relativism. When I came to know Christ as my personal Savior, I also came to understand the Bible was Truth. A source of absolute truth provided more comfort for me than understanding that I could be sure of going to heaven. And so now I can look back at this most interesting decade in light of biblical truth. Everything now becomes subject to being put through a biblical grid, even the characters and events of The Wednesday Sisters. Many times they act nobly; other times they seem to be subject to the age of relativism without thinking through long term effects of certain philosophies.
In many ways though the Wednesday sisters represent women in a universal way. How do we blend our interests, abilites and talents into the demands of a marriage and family? How do we balance our ambitions and our intelligence with a position of submission to a husband? Our husbands don't want to be married to doormats, yet they are fragile and so easily discouraged by their wives and other significant women in their lives. I do believe that Scripture teaches that a woman is to be proactive in their marriages, as mothers and in the society in which she lives. Women are often portrayed in Scripture as strong, courageous, and wise. I don't believe that either subjecting women to men nor elevating them above men is biblical. Much of what the Wednesday sisters did fit well into a biblical grid, however, in some ways they fell short because they lacked an understanding of God's view of women. God didn't need to be mentioned, but I doubt that the author understood this view because it did not come through in the book as it could have had she understood it. As believers, I think we can examine the characters in the light of a biblical grid and glean from their enthusiasm and accomplishments while applying what we know of biblical truth to our own varioius circumstances. Thus we can be shaped not only by the events of our time and culture, including the books we read, but ultimately by the truth of God.
