Cinderellaism

This essay was inspired by the 2015 Cinderella movie.

"Stories of magic alone can express my sense that life is not only a pleasure but a kind of eccentric privilege."  -G.K. Chesterton

     A love letter, a simple melody, a kiss, a smile, a tear; all of these things are so simple, and yet they are the by far the most magical moments of life.  They're not rational, in fact, they are absolutely absurd.   Do we love them because of that, or is it because we see that they have a truth all their own?  

     Why is it that fairy tales fill us with so much joy and hope?  Why is it that we live in such a rough world, a world filled with despair and hate, and we still allow ourselves to dream?  I think it's because of all those fairy tale moments each of us have received--our first kiss, a song that brings us to tears, the moment you laugh with a stranger, the tear in someone's eye.  These are all moments of perfection; a fragment of time in your life that is not tainted by doubt or guilt.  

     When we were children, we acted out every fairy tale and comic book ever made.  We wore Cinderella dresses and ran about in Superman capes.  Sadly for us, though, it never quite seemed real, and so when the delightful sparkle of childhood had finally faded, our belief in fantasy faded as well.  However, our desire for it did not cease, but we wish for something attainable, not a picture of a perfect life, but rather a guidebook to get there.   

     We don't live in a world of coaches, kings, and queens; rather we live in a world of cars, Facebook, and iPhones.   The problem with fairy tales is that they are whispers from the past and are simply ridiculous to us now, but the desire for perfection that exists in those pages is very real.  We love fairy tales because we were created to admire and long for goodness, bravery, and most of all holiness.  I think that if we were created that way, to aspire to those virtues, than perhaps fairy tales are not so unattainable as we were lead to believe as a child, for really, the only reason we were disappointed is because we were acting out stories already created instead of embracing the fairy tale that could be our life if, "we only have courage and be kind."