Will life suck without fairy tales?
A baby Pig asked the Mother Pig. “Mama, why is your snout so long?”
Mother Pig, beaming with a toothy smile, replied. “Patience, my child. When you grow up, you will find out.”
And so the story goes.
In the world of fairy tales, anything is possible. Paupers marry Princesses, elephants climb trees, and of course, pigs fly.
They are not reflective of reality. No. They are a reflection of a state of perpetual longing for idyllic life outcomes.
There’s a Cinderella story in most cultures. You probably have one in your culture too. Do you?
But this isn’t new information. Everyone knows.
Yet, we want to stick to the stories we heard as children. We repeat them as adults and keep passing the buck.
Despite the heartbreaks we felt when we learnt the truth that our most beloved stories are made up, we still tell them. I may not understand the full picture, but I’ve come to a conclusion that fairy tales are necessary.
Not just for kids, but for everyone, really. We use them in every aspect of our lives. In some ways, it makes our lives worth living.
Knowing that despite my current reality, there’s someone, somewhere who would love me for being me. That’s cheering.
Love’s never perfect. But in my mind’s eye, every kiss is heavenly, every touch is just right, and when we are together, time stops.
Laughable that we delude ourselves in such thoughts. I even promised to give the moon to someone. The saying is not as unbelievable as the fact that they believed it.
But away from love and relationships. Look at politics.
Every election year, there’s the fight of light against the darkness. We listen to politicians say all kinds of things, and somehow we buy all that crap. They promise things our rational minds should tell us are not realistic.
We love to hear those words. And I think they play a very important role in our lives.
This is my personal opinion, and I may be wrong, but I think the pain of existing is so great that humans need to stay deluded. It’s a kind of high that everyone enjoys. It shields us from the reality that the world is not a perfect place.
It’s such a powerful thing. It gives life to our imaginations and helps us craft stories that shape the world.
The hard truth I have come to learn is that, though we may not all have that fairy tale experience. There is some human in every generation whose story seems like a real one. The underdog that rises through adversity to become better than their miserable peers.
It also means that I can share a message that resonates with millions of people. Like when I say to you, “You are special!” You may never have felt special all your life, but the first thought that comes to mind is “Really? Am I?”
Something in you needs to believe those words and so desperately wants them to come true.
If I took your hand in mine. Looked you in the eyes tenderly and said, “My world is better because you exist. You are the reason I want to wake up every day. You are my everything, and I love you with everything I have.”
Did it feel good to read those words? Anything?
I think that at some point, the fairy tales work their magic on us. We begin to be imparted in some positive way. By the time we are old, we are all about fairy tales. We will tell endless tales to the young ones and restart that ancient cycle.
At the end, even the baby Pig from earlier, now well on in years, will look upon the long snout of her lover. She would yell out loud, If your snout was not so long, I wonder what else I would have loved about you? They laugh together as they fly away, flapping their short and magnificent wings.
