Saturday, October 3, 2009

Happily ever after; you've got to be kidding!

Why do movies and fair tales try to sell the whole happily ever after concept? It's a little unfair to all children and to people who refuse to grow up. First, you can be happy and then you can be happy but happily ever after? Ever after what? And isn't happiness a dynamic state? It's not a state achieved and kept. It is something you define to change as you change and as your circumstances change. So, it's happy now and again with some caveats. And it would be nice to let the naive in us know that sooner than later, right? Secondly, you can't just be happy. You have to work at it and for it. So, it would probably take away a little bit of the pain of growing up. It wouldn't be like a harsh reality if you were prepared for it but if you believe that fair tales exist as a child; then you have to suffer from the shock of their non-existence. And children are growing up faster than we would like them to and some of them are just born grown-ups. If we told things like they were, wouldn't life become simpler for all children growing up today? Does it make anyone jaded if they know that fair tales don't exist? Perhaps not. Believing in fair tales doesn't make you an optimist; it only hurts you to realize that it's not the truth. They need to get updated too! The Grimm Brothers did a great job "once upon a time" but not any more and there are no fairy tales which were meant to last forever! Time for some fresh change for sure.