Fairy Tales

Tonight my bed was simply COVERED in clean clothes requiring folding (well - truth be told it was a bit pointless to fold by the time I got around to it, as usual...if you ever wondered why my kids and I walk around in wrinkled clothes, just take a look at the end of my bed for a few days after I do laundry and the pile of wadded up clean clothes will tell the tale). At any rate - the ONE thing that makes folding laundry an ok thing to do is that I get to watch my all time favorite movie. (I've blogged about this odd little habit of mine before.)

So... as Danielle and Prince Henry kissed each other, I got to thinking about fairy tales and (more to the point) my need to keep them in my life. The truth, dear readers, is that it is absolutely impossible to understate the importance of fairy tales in my psyche. Perhaps most 37 year old women would be loathe to admit this (perhaps most 37 year old women would not NEED to admit this...) but I am here to tell you that fairy tales really do keep me going.

As a teeny, tiny little girl I remember having trouble falling asleep so I would create elaborate tales in my mind. Unfortunately, they were sometimes scary - but I think it's how I tried to figure out the world around me.

I know I have friends who worry for me - they fear that my romanticism will get me in trouble. To be fair, they have reason to be concerned. Romanticism and real life are not always able to co-exist. (Although sometimes they surprise us and manage to do so for a while...)

Occassionally, I have to pull my head back out of the clouds. That's a good thing. But when I go back to my stories - to my fairy tales - I am able to see the truth about so many things. That's really the value of fairy tales, you know. Historically, they were used as lessons - as warnings against evil and as an example towards which we should strive (kindness, love, faith).

I don't always get it exactly right - but I've ultimately decided that the best approach for me is to allow myself an immersion within my fairy tales (within reason) and then to take the lessons I learned with me as I go through "real" life. And I do learn from them, really I do. One can hardly work as an associate at a law firm without learning how to face manipulation gallantly!