Once upon a time...

I've made no secret of my fascination with stories.  From novels to poems, children's books to essays, I find stories a way to express simple wishes and complex worries. This evening, enjoying the nearly spring weather on a much needed long walk, I listened to an interview with Maria Tatar, a professor of Germanic literature and folklore studies at Harvard. She was talking about the "great cauldron of story." Perfect.

Although much of the interview focused on modern fascination with fairy tale, there were a few things that really struck me.  The first was her comment about "the great once upon a time." She called it a marker, it says "this is not the here and now."  Interestingly, Majorcan storytellers begin their tales with, "It was and it was not."  I like that, the uncertainty of reality...With that start you can go anywhere, even places that you'd be scared to go otherwise.  Tatar called once upon a time a safe space--you can say things in story that you're afraid to talk about.  You can inhabit those questions or those fears.  I like that word, "inhabit,"  it conveys a certain understanding that goes beyond words, a physical connection. And, she said, in some mysterious way you can come to an understanding. She was careful, though, not to say a resolution, because, as she noted, you have to keep working through things.  That seemed a reassuring thought.  You may have to continually revisit places and issues, but you gradually come to a different understanding. 

At the end of the story you get "happily ever after."  So, no matter how horrible the monster is, the hero survives. The hero battles the monster and finds a way out.In a fairy tale we can tame the monsters.  Face down those demons, within and without, and figure out what they are.  In that way, fairy tales offer hope, things can work out in the end.  Even though we know that, really, things don't always go so well, the fairy tale gives us courage.  As Tatar said, if we're courageous, if we use our wits, if we try to do the right thing — it will turn out all right. Even if it's just in the short run.