Fairy Tale Lessons

I didn't think the tales of fairies, ogres, giants and Cinderella
had any connection to real life because the stories were written to
allow children to be children, to pretend that all is well with the
world for a little while longer.

No matter what adversities the characters face something good always
came out of it and the bad guys always got their just deserts. Black
and white moral lessons because children view the world in black and
white. How often do children say "That's not fair" with their wee hands
on their hips or tattle on siblings at perceived wrongs.

I see fairy tales in a different light after re-reading a few of them.
I found the characters sound oddly familiar, that I actually knew
people who are just like Tinker Bell, Cinderella and even the Old Woman
who lived in a Shoe.

I now realize that these characters are a warning to children. These
are the people who will drive you crazy when you're an adult.
Take for example the Shoe woman that lives in rather cramped housing
and regularly beats and starves her children. This is a typical single
woman whose husband wanted a lot of children and leaves after the tenth
by saying he is going out for bread but never comes back. This woman
will have visits from Children's Services and probably be on the
dole.

We all know people like Cinderella. This is the teenage girl in school
that needs to do chores before she can go out with friends and have
fun. She has a step mother, who she resents because her father divorced
her 'real' mom to marry this one, hates her younger half sisters
because she now must share the attention of her father and loves to
play the martyr with the sweet demeanor. Money is tight in the
household so she can't afford the stylish clothes that others
wear.

This is a girl with a sympathetic friend, who feels so sorry for her
that she talks her boyfriend, the football captain, to go to the prom
with her. Of course, Cindy has hidden sewing talent and makes her dress
for the prom, out dazzling everyone, including the girl wearing Versace
and 'borrows' her step mother's diamond Tierra (an heirloom) and would
no doubt have preferred to hire a horse drawn carriage if she could
have afforded it. In white no less.
Guess who gets chosen King and Queen and is now going steady?

The Ogre, such as we find in Jack and the Beanstalk, probably is the
typical grade school bully. He is usually big for his age, lacking in
social skills, brains, and friends but can usually be bought with
food.

The Tinker Bells of the world are the ones with the perky personalities
that belie a manipulative streak. The ones that like to start trouble
by starting rumors, or exaggerating existing ones. The TB's will
pretend to be friends with you one minute then stab you in the back the
first chance they get then play the confused victim of betrayal by
someone they considered a friend.

Peter Pan is not much better as he's the one who uses his 'little boy'
charm when he's 50, is cunning and never makes a real commitment, but
can talk or pay anybody into anything. Michael Jackson is a PP.

Gulliver is the guy who never can decide what he wants to do but he
does like traveling. He enjoys meeting people in different cities and
towns, but only for a short time before he gets restless and goes on.
This is the type of person who is usually referred to as a fugitive or
is running from child support responsibilities. I've always suspected
he was once married to the shoe woman.

So fairy tales do teach us important lessons as we grow up if we only
learn to recognize that those beloved but demented characters we read
about as children are actual lessons in psychology, preparing us for
the demented characters that become part of our lives in adulthood.