Living the Fairy Tale Life

I find myself currently contemplating the meaning of "Living a Fairy Tale life." No happy ending until the main character goes through the struggle and overcomes the wicked character(s). We often only see the end of the story in others and say to ourselves, "Wish I had that life." We seldom consider what they had to do or go through to ...get there. Very significant and is becoming a major part of my work.

A friend replied to the comments above as follows: "I often wonder at the back story of the wicked character. How did they get that way? Is there really no hope for redemption for them? Could not the conflict have been arbitrated better than by a woodcutter's axe, a hot oven or a bucket of water?
And, if I'm in a Fairy Tale Life, how do I know I'm not the wicked character?"

True. I am thinking about that also. I think the "good" character is just an average person doing what average people do and trying to do his or her best, but no matter what that character does in the story, the other characters aren't happy.

Cinderella, for example. She does everything she is asked to do and yet her step-family is not satisfied. It would seem that the step-family will not be satisfied until they destroy all that Cinderella embodies. I think many people can relate to her dilemma and I don't think anyone, except for wicked people would consider her wicked. But yes, there is that question of what made the step-family wicked in this story. That we must leave up to our imaginations and how each of us would create that story.

Relating it to real life, we can see that there are many reasons people become that way; childhood abuse, trauma, mental illness. Bullying, substance abuse, and other "wicked" behaviors are symptoms not causes. And many times, the wicked cannot control their behaviors which related back to Gollum of yesterday's post, is why they deserve our pity but this does not mean we must endure their torture.