Fairy Tales are Predictive

Last night, for some reason, I was thinking about Pinocchio.  It would be so cool if people’s noses really grew when they told a lie.  The visual is entertaining, but disturbing at the same time.  I would assume a growing nose would keep people from lying, but there are some who believe their own fiction.

So, Pinocchio led me down a path of how predictive fairy tales are.  They’re stories we’ve told our kids and grandkids, but there’s a lot of substance to some of them.

We’ve got Pinocchio showing us the consequences of lies. 

The Emperor’s New Clothes tells us about a man who surrounded himself with flatterers and yes-men.  They only told him what he wanted to hear and then a child, who undoubtedly didn’t want his nose to grow, showed up and spoke the truth. 

The Boy Who Cried Wolf warns us about fearmongering and spreading false alarms.  At some point your head spins and your brain screams, “I don’t know what’s true anymore.  Who do I believe?”  Nobody wants anybody’s head to spin—especially if their nose is extra-long.

Snow White teaches us what can happen if you are so vain that the only words you know are “biggest, best, most wonderful, magnificent, never seen anything like it before” blah-blah-blah.  You better make darn sure all of your adjectives are correct or that nose thing is going to come into play once again. 

Sleeping Beauty—wasn’t that about not listening to warnings from the evil fairy and then the whole kingdom fell asleep because of a little finger prick?  It’s ok, though. Prince Charming will show up and save everybody.  Did he realize the love of his life was technically almost 100 years older than him?  Did it have to be a prince?  A woman would have gotten there 50 years sooner, because she would have checked her GPS and got proper directions.

Rumpelstiltskin was a little fairy tale con man.  Manipulation, deception and greed were his M.O., and if I remember correctly, when he was found out he fled or exploded or something, and was never heard from again.  The End.