Fairy Tale Endings Annoy Me

Don't get me wrong...I love to curl up to a good Disney movie, even though my kids are now grown and I really have no excuse to watch them except that I genuinely enjoy them (Mulan is my favorite). It's that "Happily ever after" part that always gets me. What does that even mean??? Because you know that in the days that followed, Cinderella had times with the Prince where she wanted to brain him with a scepter and talk about him getting the in-laws from hell! I almost feel sorry for ol' Prince Charming. As for Tarzan and Jane, you know once they had kids, she was probably nagging him non-stop to move back to civilization so she could get a pedicure, enjoy the comforts of places with running water, and the possibility of sending their progeny off to school! For me, the novelty of living in the jungle would have worn off even quicker when I had no access to a restaurant on occasion, a grocery store, and a real bathroom!  How the heck do you find "happily ever after" when you have to poop in the woods day after day, and have no toilet paper??? Not this Princess, lemme tell ya!

If asked, most people will say they don't believe in fairytales and yet still that's the kind of relationship they're looking for (okay, maybe not the pooping in the woods part)! They want that ooey, gooey, fru-fru love that's all sparkly and magical. Many have completely unrealistic and antiquated notions of what "true love" should be, often believing that it will just sustain itself if it's "right". Pffftttt...this is utter non-sense and anyone who has managed to sustain a long-term relationship for many years would probably agree with me.

The initial spark between two people is the "easy" part. It happens without thought, without warning, and boy can it knock you for a loop! What comes next, however, that's the hard part. Just like building a fire, getting the spark to ignite, easy peasy, but if you don't feed the fire it goes out. Sometimes, if you feed it a lot, it gets intense, blazing hot, and stoked too high will totally burn the crap out of you! If you wish to sustain it, you bank and nurture it a little at a time to keep the burn low and steady. A fire neglected will settle into hot ash that can be rekindled, but only if you don't wait too long to feed it again. Relatively simple when you're dealing with wood, not so much when it comes to humans. We're messy!  Happily ever after, my ass! Commitment, hard work, and a desire to invest in each other over and over again, day after day through the good, bad and ugly...that's what comes next if it lasts. That's the devil in the details of "happily ever after" that nobody bothers to tell you, and if you aren't willing to do that, then you can skip right to "the end".

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