Some say fairy tales are dreams, others
say fairy tales lie.I say the truth lies between them.
Do real-life Cinderellas get their
happily ever after? Maybe, but definitely not all the time.
Does that mean the fairy tale lies?
Does it deceive us into dreaming of the day our prince will come?
Depends what you’re looking for.
If you’re looking to a fabled princess
for answers, then you aren’t really seeking the truth. No, you’re looking for
something far more coveted; you’re looking for hope.
Hope for a better tomorrow is what gets most of us through the day – well that and coffee. Hey, Cinderella has singing birds and I have my latte.
Caffeine aside, hope is what allows us
to dig in, to find the place where grit and determination lie dormant; the
place where we find out who we really are and what we’re truly made of, a place
which – to some of us – really is a fairy tale.
When times get really hard, I often
fall into the fairy tale mindset. Funny, isn’t it? It’s only when things get
tough that I believe fairy tales could be real. They’re like the softest
blanket of snow on a cold winter’s night, or a loving embrace; something to
catch you when you fall. The moment the impossible happens, something so cold
and unthinkable, is when I feel that my happily ever after has to be on the
horizon.
Cinderella becomes a slave in her own home; Belle becomes trapped in a castle with a beast; Rapunzel is hidden from the world – all of them experience tragedy before fighting for the life they deserve.
That’s how it works, right? Wrong.
If you read Robin McKinley’s Beauty or Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles, then you know life owes you nothing. Even if things work out in the end, a lot of the beauty in life comes from human ability to see diamonds in the roughest of storms. That’s the real magic.
Fairytales show possibilities, and
possibility depends on perspective; so, are they dreams? Do they deceive? Or,
are we the masters of illusion?
You decide.
Children's and YA Author (UK)
