Tuesday, September 16, 2008

It Doesn't Happen to Everyone (Why Fairy Tales are for Fairies)

This was my idea for a book, and some friends even said they would contribute a chapter each. But I could not figure out a way to avoid to write with bitterness (for the subject is teeming with such possibilities), so I postponed the project until I was objective enough to face it.

The song says "fairy tales can come true; it could happen to you". Well, it could but it doesn't mean it would.  

So what to do when the fairy tale does not have a happy ending?  When Cinderella's prince doesn't look for the owner of the glass slipper and runs off with one of the bejeweled princesses scattered around his castle?  When Sleeping Beauty isn't kissed back to life?  When Snow White is left to suffer Death by Apple Poisoning?  When there are more princesses than princes in the land?

Well, real life does not have neat and simplistic endings, and they are not usually written until after decades and decades of twists and turns.  

The people with seemingly charmed lives are not happy all the time.  They could be trapped in a permanent restlessness due to a lack of exposure to failure and disappointment.  They could be brandishing their perfect lives to make up for an emptiness they cannot fathom.  Nobody has it all.

As for the pretty women out there who were brought up expecting men should recite poetry, deliver moonbeams, and ride horses, they should realize that such fairy tales are meant for fairies alone.  In the real world, things happen differently.  There may be a happy ending yet, but it may not come in the expected time or way.  This should not stop them from being the lead star in their respective lives.  

I have more to say on this subject, but I just might write a book about it.  With tenderness, and not bitterness, I hope.

We all like to wait for the prince, but we were meant to see the King.  A huge paradigm shift is needed for that to be the focus of our lives.  May we not miss out on the opportunity for that to happen to us.  

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