Fairy Tales

Over the past 2 weeks, I have been travelling all over North America, completing various business-related tasks. Upon my return trip from California yesterday, I found that I had exhausted my supply of reading materials. Unwilling to face the proposition of a 4 hour plane flight with nothing to do, I ducked into the airport store to see what was available. Anyone who has ever shopped in one of these literature-deprived environs will surely sympathize with my dismay at the available selection. Under the heading "Popular Authors", I saw a few "best sellers", none of which I recognized. There were a few random business and self-help books, but nothing I was prepared to dedicate 4 hours of my life to. Reluctantly, I picked up Jim Cramer's (you, know, the stock guy who screams all the time?) new book, and prepared myself to have mediocre investment advice foisted upon me with all the professionalism and subtlety of a train wreck. As I proceeded to the checkout, I happened to catch a glimpse of something much more interesting - it was the unabridged collection of the Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. I had read them before, perhaps when I was 8 or 9 years old. However, with the new movies available, and the level of depth that Lewis's writing contains ( I had read Mere Christianity about 10 years ago), I decided to pick it up instead. Thank God. I broke into the 760 pages much as I normally do, and a whole flood of memories returned in an instant. The world of Narnia was much as I had remembered it as a child - complete with evil Witches, growing lampposts, and giant lions. However, the advanced frame of reference that comes with both adulthood and an increased overall knowledge base showed the true genius of the saga. Although he wrote it in 1949, Lewis had and excellent understanding of many philosophical concepts. Consider the Witch's self-justification of her actions in The Magician's Nephew: I had forgotten that you are only a common boy. How should you understand reasons of State? You must learn, child, That what would be wrong for you or any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I. The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules... How morbidly applicable to our current leadership... In among all of the weight of this fantasy saga, my greatest revelation came in the form of a dedication that Lewis wrote to his god-daughter, Lucy: My dear Lucy, I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand, a word you say... Someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.. This speaks directly to the heart of human growth and development. When we are young, we indulge - and are indulged - in fairy tales, complete with good vs. evil, monsters and angels, Witches and Lions. At some point, we are told to "grow up", and put aside such childish things as fairy tales. The world is a very different place than Narnia, and child-like indulgence is neither societally acceptable, nor is it invited by the budding individual. We fancy ourselves too sophisticated and worldly for such foolishness. At some later point, when we have established our place in the world and have become comfortable with our lot in life, we are finally "old enough to start reading fairy tales again". It is at this point that only the great stories endure. The legendary complexities of these sagas teach us much about ourselves and about how we would like to be. I have a 6 month old daughter. As she grows, she will undoubtedly read of Hobbits, Lions, Witches, and Wardrobes - as girls do indeed grow faster than books. She will no doubt have questions about the proverbial birds and the bees. I'm sure that I will - like so many before me - lean on the great heroes as part of my answer. Bilbo Baggins and Aslan the Lion will serve as an example to my daughter at a time when it is her divine right to believe that there is a definable distance between good and evil, and that the good side will always triumph simply by being good. The complexities of the fairy tales will mirror the complexities of life - they will be non-existent for the child, overwhelming for the young adult, and reality for the mature adult. When the time finally arrives for her to be old enough to read fairy tales again, I could very well be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand her thoughts and needs. I may be gone altogether. At that point, I will have to trust the Lion and the Hobbit to continue to provide their legendary direction, if only I have done well enough that she knows how to look for it.