No Briar Rose, No Sleeping Beauty
If there were no Briar Rose slumbering, no Sleeping Beauty waiting to be awakened by a kiss – would you still bother with the towering and dense thorn hedge?
Would you have rode for endless miles in a thundering storm and break out your sword – or shears or machete – to hack and hew at the tenacious and stubborn stems, the magically self-regenerating stalks?
Would you, really, even bother getting out of bed (nevermind the long distance commute and arduous, physical toil) for anything less than a pot of gold – or a drop-dead gorgeous young lady – at the end of a strenuous, muddy trek?
You think that’s bad?
Wait, there’s more – and it gets worse: there isn’t a drop-dead gorgeous princess within the castle turret behind the thorn hedge waiting to be saved; in fact, she is just an ordinary girl (possibly quite plain too), and, what’s more, she isn’t looking to be rescued either – much less saved.
You know what - actually, the thorn hedge is all her doing. Yup, she’d planted the damn thing; watered and fertilized it, spent a lot of time cultivating and talking to it, making sure it grow up thick and strong and tall – she did. The thorn hedge is meant to keep you out, not imprison her.
So there you go – that’s reality for you. There aren’t princesses waiting to be awakened and saved - there aren’t princesses at all, period; and the girl-woman dwelling behind the hedge of thorn isn’t waiting to be rescued either. She’s not going to be the perfect, pretty, and precious little thing you get to live with happily ever after either.
I’ll tell you one thing: sometimes, the ones encircled with and hidden by towering thorn hedges don’t want to be set free from their surroundings or circumstances – or, even, themselves; sometimes, at the very best, they just hope to be found, that’s all.
And if and when you do find them (and manage to get through to them), what will happen next is entirely up to the two of you: happily ever after is for fairytales; in real life, you never know what you’re gonna get.
So, then, the question remains: if there were no Briar Rose slumbering, no Sleeping Beauty waiting to be awakened by a kiss – would you still bother with the towering and dense thorn hedge?
Would you, really?
Would you have rode for endless miles in a thundering storm and break out your sword – or shears or machete – to hack and hew at the tenacious and stubborn stems, the magically self-regenerating stalks?
Would you, really, even bother getting out of bed (nevermind the long distance commute and arduous, physical toil) for anything less than a pot of gold – or a drop-dead gorgeous young lady – at the end of a strenuous, muddy trek?
You think that’s bad?
Wait, there’s more – and it gets worse: there isn’t a drop-dead gorgeous princess within the castle turret behind the thorn hedge waiting to be saved; in fact, she is just an ordinary girl (possibly quite plain too), and, what’s more, she isn’t looking to be rescued either – much less saved.
You know what - actually, the thorn hedge is all her doing. Yup, she’d planted the damn thing; watered and fertilized it, spent a lot of time cultivating and talking to it, making sure it grow up thick and strong and tall – she did. The thorn hedge is meant to keep you out, not imprison her.
So there you go – that’s reality for you. There aren’t princesses waiting to be awakened and saved - there aren’t princesses at all, period; and the girl-woman dwelling behind the hedge of thorn isn’t waiting to be rescued either. She’s not going to be the perfect, pretty, and precious little thing you get to live with happily ever after either.
I’ll tell you one thing: sometimes, the ones encircled with and hidden by towering thorn hedges don’t want to be set free from their surroundings or circumstances – or, even, themselves; sometimes, at the very best, they just hope to be found, that’s all.
And if and when you do find them (and manage to get through to them), what will happen next is entirely up to the two of you: happily ever after is for fairytales; in real life, you never know what you’re gonna get.
So, then, the question remains: if there were no Briar Rose slumbering, no Sleeping Beauty waiting to be awakened by a kiss – would you still bother with the towering and dense thorn hedge?
Would you, really?
scribbled on Friday, May 05, 2006
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