Cosmic Fairy Tales

The blue fairy as God figure? - Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Author's note -- My wonderful mother passed away at age 78 on August 16th. She was a fun, special lady and seemed younger than her age, always. She was diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer and lived just 3 weeks with home hospice care after diagnosis. I don't know where anyone goes in the afterlife, but she will add to the joy and laughter wherever it is.

Magic Air

I'll tell a tale
of maidens fair
and dragons fierce
and magic air

I'll tell it not with words precise
or thoughts profound
or terms concise

A child can let the tale unfold
with whimsey, rhymes and actions bold
He'll open wide the shuttered door
To something other, something more

Today's blog is one I've touched on before in other articles, it's a personal favorite and well worth revisiting. In high school English class you were probably served topics like symbolism, metaphor and personification. Most teens find these topics about as exciting as cold oatmeal and would much rather be Tweeting or texting the hour away. When the method of delivery is a Percy Shelley poem or Moby Dick, the dry dullness becomes overwhelming. The literary devices mentioned above are far better understood and enjoyed as personal discoveries. Every other song, poem and fictional work in pop culture has some type of message between the lines – the sensitive listener will pick up and enjoy these (certainly when the topic is something about sex).

One area that is rife with symbolism is children's literature. Aesop and Mother Goose have a lot up their sleeves that our parents never imagined. Even when the message is fairly obvious (Emperor's New Clothes, The Tortoise and the Hare), adults are quick to flush it out of their minds – minds far too busy with Important Stuff. That's too bad -- the morals are so much needed in today's world.

Two of my favorite children's stories are Mary Poppins and the Wizard of Oz. Both of these are full of symbolism not the least of which is their God imagery. College freshmen, properly tanked up on beer, can dissect the importance of the Wizard, the yellow brick road and how it all relates to an emerald city. What was Baum really saying? Yet another movie that serves up miraculous metaphors is Pinocchio. This movie was masterfully delivered by Walt Disney in his 1940 animation, but has fallen into a certain level of obscurity.

Let me set forth some of the things that make Pinocchio a truly relevant, nay cosmic fairy tale:

o It offers not just a “God” but a hierarchy of intelligences – a cricket with conscience, a kindly human puppet maker and a blue fairy.
o It shows a physical consequence to lying – a consequence that gives Pinocchio a lengthened nose and turns hoodlums into braying donkeys.
o It shows a transformational experience – a wood puppet transforming into a live boy after demonstrating fortitude and human love.

It's getting late in the evening – I won't delve into the theological and cosmological bee hives the Pinocchio story kicks open. Even if you're set like quick-dry cement in your religious viewpoint you might still see some points to ponder. What is ironic is that children the world over can be delighted by the concepts presented – and Mommy and Daddy are just glad the rug rats are occupied with a DVD in the back seat.

Unless you've walled your children off in a home school with Veggie Tales on permanent replay, they should get a liberal exposure to a variety of ideas just looking at the classics. You can hammer your kids back into compliance at a later date if need be. Or maybe, just maybe let them open up their imaginations and discover a few things on their own. It might help them to be better rounded people and they'll later get high school bonus points for correctly interpreting Ozymandias.

© 2011 blogSpotter