Post by HELEN ELIZA MIDDLEFORD on Mar 12, 2012 7:31:34 GMT -8
[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style, width: 300px; background-color: #7e1627;][cs=2] |
| [atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style, width: 300px; background-color: #7e1627;][cs=2] helen eliza middleford. |
| [atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style, width: 300px; background-color: #0F104B;][cs=2] female. human. naturalist. thirty-two. |
Born to Eliza Hope Middleford and Franklin James Middleford, Helen grew up in an upper-class family. Franklin ran a business selling solar-powered products, mainly solar sails for sky transport. Not only was he successful – he was eccentric as well. In his free time he indulged himself in philosophy, modern inventions, and new ideas and theories that did not quite ‘fit in’ with mainstream societal thoughts – mainly evolution and relations between organisms and their natural environment (soon to be known as “ecology” much later in the future). These interests quickly led to his disbelief, even criticism of, religion – resulting in the loss of a few extremely important business and social connections. This scared Eliza: few could lead to several, which could lead to all, which could cause the Middlefords to fall both financially and socially. So she tried to stop Franklin, only for him to refuse. They began arguing; a little at first, then quickly escalating into eruptions that would last for days, even weeks. Finally, they agreed to separate – secretly. Outside the household they appeared to be together, to still get along, but inside, they avoided each other, divided the assets, their children included: Eliza had their second and third children, Emma and Katherine, who were considered the most beautiful of the three Middleford daughters and thus the most beneficial when married off. Franklin had the eldest, Helen, and the youngest, Nathaniel. It did not take long for Nathaniel to follow in his father’s eccentric footsteps. Helen, however, started out hesitant. She pondered on her father’s preference for individuality (“Dignity,” he called it) over the wellbeing of his entire family. Did he not care for them? Did he treasure his own feelings and values so much that he had to break his wife and children apart? Helen could not see any sense in her father’s actions, and so refused to learn from him. That is, until she read, by accident, the articles on evolution and organism-environment relations. Then she applied: the flowers in her room clumping together not for aesthetic reasons, but for the space that would allow the dominant flower access to the optimal amount of sunlight; the factors affecting her mother, her father, even herself; the competition between her sisters for the best suitor – the best mate. Then she saw: beauty, the beauty of connection, how one affects another which affects another which affects another; nutrients, minerals, water, energy, materials – how all these entered the soil, the air, the ocean, the river, every part of the earth, and were transferred throughout the earth over and over again, recycled, recycled, recycled; how the flowers she touched possibly contained the same nutrients that an ancient animal had used as well. And then she knew, she finally knew – it was beauty that her father fought for; for how could you refuse beauty? When you knew it existed, and you were engulfed in it, how could you let someone tear you away? You couldn’t, her father couldn’t. By her twenties, Helen had begun her career as a naturalist – first in the local environment, then in foreign lands, travelling from country to country, island to island, with other enthusiasts and students of the subject, her brother and father included (so thank god for her sisters' marriages -- without such wealthy in-laws, there would have been some rather disturbing financial problems). She had turned into a critic herself, especially when it comes to mainstream society’s view on women. Much to her mother’s dismay, Helen’s unorthodoxy is amplifying by the minute, and she’s very, very, very proud of that. |
| [atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style, width: 300px; background-color: #0F104B;][cs=2] individualistic. daring. stubborn. egotistical. |
| [atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style, width: 300px; background-color: #7e1627;][cs=2] friedrich. gayle hunnicutt. |
