Modern Day Fairy Tale

Like most children, before I lost my innocence to heartbreaks and the grim realities surrounding us, I too, used to believe in fairy tales. The land of make believe where prince charming triumphs over evil and whisks his princess into the sunset. Once upon a time, I used to believe my prince charming would appear out of the oblivion and save this damsel in distress. The clock has struck twelve, my honda has turned into the value of a pumpkin, but there’s still no sign of the thy prince.

As I was browsing through the children’s books section for my nephew the other day, I wondered, is it wrong to teach kids to be so delusional at such a young impressionable age? After all, we all know Santa Clause isn’t real – as is the tooth fairy, or the monster under the bed. But we read these bed time stories to them anyway. We tell them to leave their broken tooth under the pillow anyway. We do it, because we like to instill a sense of the invisible hand – that mysterious figure that magically transforms life’s problems into happy endings. We do it because it teaches us to believe in love, and its supernatural ability to conquer – well, just about everything.

As we grow through the years, and begin to shed our baby fat and innocence, we still carry the weight of the beliefs engrained in us. Deep down inside, we truly believe that love conquers all – whether that “all” entails betrayal, rejection, or pure evil. But does it? If your husband cheats on you, will your deep-rooted love for him prevail over the hurt, and allow you to forgive him? If the object of your affection breaks your heart, will you be able to woo him by showering him with love and attention? As with most things in life, such answers are never clear and always subjective.

Or do we just rely on the “love conquers all” idiom as a crutch so we can mask the bigger evil: denial. Denial of the non-existent Santa, or the denial of your husband’s affair, or the denial of being unwanted. Let’s face it… we all like to delay coming to terms with the cold hard truth, but sooner or later, we can no longer run from it. Two months ago, I became infatuated with a guy that I had known for several months. It’s as if the “tooth” fairy came in the middle of the night, took a piece of my heart and gave it to him, in exchange for – well, not sure what. Two months ago, his name meant nothing to me, and his presence had no effect on me because he was just some guy. Now I categorize him a tad bit differently; he’s the guy that makes me smile at the mere thought of him, the one that makes me cry, the one that I want to be with because no one else quite makes me feel the same damn way. Unfortunately, the feelings weren’t mutual so I tried to make myself believe that I can live with being “just friends” and that eventually he’ll come around. That was the child in me, ever so fervently naïve, who believed that my feelings would triumph and win him over.

So kids, the moral of this long winded story is this: running away from the truth doesn’t make it disappear, so put your big girl panties on and deal with it; love doesn't conquer all, so when someone doesn't reciprocate your feelings, accept it and move on; and finally, kiss slowly and passionately, but when you do kiss, do so without the hopes of him turning into a prince.