That Girl's Blog: A Modern Fairytale

I was thinking about the movie Maleficent recently. It’s a reverse take on the classic fairytale “Sleeping Beauty”.

The original story is a lot simpler: Good vs Bad… Beauty vs Jealousy… True Love wins over Evil… Happily Ever After.

Life, unfortunately isn’t so simple.

I was trying to find an escape from the sadness, anger and frustrations happening around us all. I was hoping for inspiration for a fairytale ending to the tragic pandemic which has now intertwined with thorny politics and angry masses.

I want a fairy godmother to sweep in on gossamer wings with a glittery wand to cast light into the darkness. I want to hear a gentle voice whose whisper drowns out the shouting and soothes the sobbing. I want a magical shield to protect the weakest as well as the strongest among us.

I want a happily ever after at the end of this pandemic. I know for some, that won’t happen.

I thought more about the fairytale: The evil witch casts a spell of death on the helpless baby; a spell that cannot be broken. We are told she will die and everyone has to live with this curse for 16 years before it will happen… But no matter what, she is going to die.

Unbreakable spell… All despair! Immediately, darkness falls across the land!

Everyone despairs except the last of three fairies who were invited to the lavish christening for the new princess.

The little fairy knows she cannot break the evil spell, but perhaps she can bend it just a little. With her help, at the age of 16, the princess will no longer die, but fall asleep after pricking her finger on a spinning wheel. Moreover, she will not fall asleep forever, but just long enough for true love and better times to arrive.

As I scroll through social media news feeds I see more and more bad news. Some days it seems like the rain won’t stop and the virus continues to spread and is completely taking over…

And then…

I see a picture or read a story about a seemingly ordinary person who steps up and by their actions bends the badness. Their smile lights up a cold cloudy day (even from behind a protective mask); their hands (chapped from soap and sanitizer) carry food and supplies to neighbors in need; their kind words eclipse the anger of others and, for a brief moment, you might catch a glimpse of gossamer wings on their shoulders or sparkles falling from their fingertips… These are our real life Fairy Godmothers and Fairy Godfathers.

We are in a time when it might seem as if we have little control over the badness around us. Perhaps, for the time being, we just need to bend the badness a little bit, until we can all wake up from this nightmare… And when we do wake up, I hope we remember our fairy godparents, the men and women who knew they couldn’t take the evil away completely, but tried to make it bearable until better days arrive.