The Glad Game

What should you say when you want a doll but receive crutches as a gift?

You should say, "I am so glad! Because I don't need the crutches!"

Eleven-year-old Pollyanna always does just that; she always looks for the good in any situation. And one by one, all the residents of the American town where the girl arrives after the death of her parents begin to play this game too. Dissatisfied, alienated, envious, and bitter, the townspeople, under Pollyanna’s influence, slowly transform into grateful, sociable, and smiling people who, as it turns out, have perfectly fine lives and not much to complain about after all. It wasn't hard for Pollyanna to reach their hearts, because this girl seemed to not notice others' bitterness at all. Like Yeshua Ha-Nozri or Prince Myshkin, she sincerely believes that everyone around her is a good person; she doesn't hear the rude replies; she doesn't notice the skepticism and mockery.

For Pollyanna, everything is always OK, even though the reader can clearly see that things are not OK at all: Pollyanna is an orphan, very poor, and has been placed in the care of her aunt—a cold, prim woman. There is not a single familiar face around her, she is assigned the most miserable room in a wealthy house, burdened with a pile of restrictions, and made to feel in every way that she is a dependent, but... she doesn't notice! :)

Left without dinner? Well, at least they didn't take away the bread and milk, and she loves them so much! Does the room look like a prison? But what a wonderful view from the window! An ugly dress? Well, it would be a shame to ruin a beautiful one while climbing trees! You can find joy in good weather and bad weather, in the rainbow cast by crystal prisms, in a fascinatingly interesting pamphlet about disease-carrying flies, and even in the fact that you aren't named Hephzibah! The whole town adopts this worldview. The lives of miserable widows, rejected suitors, suffering invalids, and simply those who are always dissatisfied with everything begin to sparkle with bright colors and take on new meanings.

This book, of course, by today's standards, is overly sentimental and naive, yet all of us could stand to learn, at least a little, to "play the game of joy." And as for children, by way of contrast, it can be explained that one won't always find a reason for joy in every situation—this story is an artistic exaggeration—but the fact that grumbling and complaining at the slightest inconvenience is not the way to go, that is the pure truth—look at Pollyanna!