Fairytales Revisited

What would a fairytale be with just a happy ending?

Every story needs a beginning, middle and end. In the beginning we are introduced the characters, we are given a reason to care. The middle is where conflict arises and must be dealt with. The ending is resolution of that conflict. In fairy tales, at least the popular ones, the ending is where the princess rides off into the sunset with her prince and they live happily ever after. It's the happy ever after part that everyone wants. Without the happy ever after - would we read Little Red Riding Hood to assure ourselves that we are not the only ones wearing capelets in public? Or Snow White to remind ourselves that pale can be beautiful? Maybe Hansel and Gretel for tips on baking the best gingerbread house? What would these stories be without the elements of fear, despair, sadness, longing, danger, evil, rage and even death? That is where fiction mirrors reality. My fairytale seems to be writing itself in reverse.

"The princess and her prince are living happily ever after in their castle when one day the princess's stomach begins to swell. The kingdom rejoices at the couple's good news. Preparations for the royal child's arrival begin when suddenly the princess falls ill. The doctor determines it is not the princess but the royal child who is ill and will sadly, die. The prince and princess enter a period of mourning, the castle becomes like a tomb. Night after night the princess's sorrowful wailing echoes throughout the castle walls. At last the child arrives. He lives only long enough to meet his grief stricken parents. The kingdom mourns with the good princess and prince. Determined to bring joy to their people, the prince and princess one day announce that another royal child will be born and that the child is healthy. The baby girl's arrival is celebrated throughout the kingdom, as is that of her two younger sisters which arrive in the years after. But alas, the prince and princess seek to complete their family and are especially hopeful of a son for the throne. They excitedly announce the impending arrival of one final child. The princess senses a difference with this child and once again the doctor informs the couple that their child has not long to live. Darkness again settles over the kingdom as it prepares for the child's arrival. The royal family welcomes a tiny son who is briefly surrounded by his three older sisters. Sadness again reigns..."

Fairytales and fiction. They provide an escape, escape from reality. We relentlessly pursued fiction after Wyatt's birth, we rented movies, watched television and went to the movie theater. For just a few hours we were able to immerse ourselves into someone else's reality and leave ours behind. Again, I find myself thirsting for that escape. Oddly enough, my poison of choice tends to be reality shows on television which despite the "reality" provide enough drama to drown out my own. This time I have added a new source, literature. I find myself reading books at an astonishing pace and so I have added a tab on the right side of my page to document what books I have read. I tend to prefer historical fiction but find the process of locating good historical fiction too tedious so now I am just reading pretty much whatever I come across and have found most of them satisfying enough. Perhaps one day we will find the ending to our own story.

Tangled

I am referring to the newest Disney princess movie about Rapunzel and her golden hair. Being a mother of three little girls, one of whom truly believes she is a princess who will marry a prince and live happily ever after, it was inevitable that this movie would enter our house. What I didn't expect, was how this movie would affect my heart.

Here goes . . . Once upon a time, Rapunzel is stolen from her parents shortly after her birth after a joyous celebration during which her parents, the king and queen, released a single paper lantern in honor of their daughter. Many many years pass. Rapunzel's eighteenth birthday arrives. Her parents release a paper lantern as they did on her first birthday, this time joined by lanterns from all over the kingdom. The lanterns are released each year on her birthday in the hopes that Rapunzel will see them and return home. As the king and queen prepare to release the lantern, Rapunzel's mother looks lovingly at her husband and wipes the tear from his eye.

The sadness and longing felt so real as if it were captured from my own memory. Their lantern floats into the air and is then joined by hundreds, perhaps thousands of others to light the night sky. The depth of that moment was surely lost on my younger daughters. That those parents, seventeen years without their daughter, had not given up hope of one day being reunited. The release of their love, hope and grief into the dark sky to brilliantly light it one night each year, the night of their daughter's birth. Each lantern representing one other person remembering their daughter too.

I wish that each year on Wyatt and Eli's birthdays I could look into the sky and see evidence of love for my sons, be surrounded by the warmth and love of others and lifted into the sky to be closer to where they are. I wish that for all parents and brothers and sisters of little ones who have left us.