"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Saturday 25 July 2009

Summer Time and The Living is Easy

Sometimes I sit and think
And sometimes I just sit

It was the caption under a picture of a white Sealyham terrier, head tilted , on a calender in my grandmother's house. I don't remember which wall or even which room. Just the picture and the caption . I have seen it of course many times since.

I thought of it when I was sitting on my deck this week. It occurred to me a dog never just sits. A dog is forever watchful and aware. Their eyes are full of intelligence and inquiry. Speak to them, about things they understand, they know the words .Many of their senses are superior to our own.

For some reason, my thoughts wandered to how children's nursery rhymes are a recount of some horrible event. Ring-a-Ring o' Rosy depicts the Great Plague during the Middle-ages.

Recently I learned Little Red Riding Hood was an account of rape and murder.

I wakened this morning thinking about Snow-white and the Wicked Step-mother Queen
whose magic mirror on the wall assured her daily she was the fairest of them all. Then
one day when she asked, the mirror gave Queenie the terrible news; Snow-White is the fairest of all.

It could not be allowed. The Wicked Queen called the Woodsman and told him to take Snow-White deep into the woods and kill her. Y'all know the rest. Hundreds of years later, Disney made a full-length movie from the fable, first in techni-colour I believe.

History always repeats itself.

Here in Aurora, a person with power suffers under the delusion of being supreme. Nowhere in her ambit can anyone be permitted who has greater knowledge,better education or more experience. Only lackeys, sycophants and lesser stars must be permitted to circulate within her orbit .They detract nothing from her brilliance. .

At the time Snow White became a legend the main character was not the Wicked Queen. The story was about purity and innocence, beautiful Snow White, the Seven Dwarfs and the Handsome Prince who came to find her and presumably made her his Queen.

It was about the triumph of good over evil.

In this place and at this time, we watch the old story play out. The Queen who must be the only star in the firmament, the axe-wielding woodsman, the hag with the poisoned apple, the whole shebang.

A couple of chapters are yet to be written..

The end is not yet in sight. There will no doubt be a few more twists and turns.

I look forward to following it but the end is predictable I'll wager.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I HOPE the end is predictable. In Snow White, what goes around comes around. Sometimes, it seems to take forever for it to happen, but it ALWAYS does. It will be fun watching the ending and I DO mean END come to pass. Evelyn...your post is brilliant.

Anonymous said...

If hypocrisy and downright delusional thinking can get any deeper than this, I don't know how.