HENSLEY: I still believe in fairy tales

Published 1:28 pm Monday, August 31, 2020

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By Judith Hensley
Contributing columnist

Yesterday evening I was up late watching a movie. I looked at the clock and it way definitely past bedtime. I suddenly found myself talking to myself out loud.

“What in the world are you doing up this late watching this stupid movie? Aren’t you getting a little too old to be watching fairy tales? GO TO BED!”

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What is it about fairy tales that has the power to charm old and young alike? It’s hard to say how many versions of the classic fairy tales like Cinderella have been written, told, and even made in to moves. Las night I happened to be watching a very old ridiculous version of Beauty and the Beast. I was shocked when I realized it had been released by a major movie company in the 1960s. The costumes were great for everyone but the poor beast.  He looked more like Teen Wolf than the Beast.

There are many versions of fairy tales to be told. Similar stories exist across continents and cultures. One of the last books I wrote last year was The Bride Price. It was based on a folk tale shared with me by a friend from South Africa that as much akin to Cinderella. The notion of being redeemed by love is a universal desire. The notion of a person being faithful and good but being taken advantage of and undervalued by people until the right person comes along is also a universal desire.

No matter how much we like fairy tales or want to believe in the possibility of “happily ever after,” most of us lead very ordinary lives in which we grasp what happiness may come on occasion, and learn to be content with the rest.

In my opinion, ordinary is a good thing. I would so much rather have been married to someone who knew he was ordinary and loved me in spite of my ordinary looks and ways. Being ordinary is underrated.  I am quite content with the ordinary life that God gave me. When anything remarkable happens to me or comes through me, I know it is because of the goodness of God working in my life.

Sometimes I wish that I would have accomplished more in the years I’ve lived. At times I critically review my years and wish I had been more successful or more of a money-making machine. Alas, I’ve been blessed with ordinary. This includes good times and bad, happy and sad, wonderful and woeful. Such days come to every life.

Occasionally, in the middle of ordinary living, we see fairy tales unfold before us. It’s been almost two years since my son called and told me he was going out with a girl his friends wanted him to meet from Harlan County. He had been living and working in the city for several years. The first half of his life had been here in the mountains, but the second half had been among the cities of Lexington, Evansville, and Louisville.

The distance between them seemed to be a very significant barrier. I knew he was falling in love and prayed it would be mutual. His children fell in love with her and it seemed her children were getting equally attached to him. When he popped the question and she said, “Yes,” no one could see the additional complications from jobs, COVID-19, where to live, children, etc.

They were married in the Outer Banks of North Carolina a couple of weeks ago and I have the greatest hopes that when they settle into their new lives together, as ordinary as daily demands might be, that they both have truly found their “happily ever after.”

Even though it seems as if that magical time and possibility has slipped away from my own life years ago, I still believe in fairy tales, and am so blessed to see that this one is coming true.

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