I recently watched the movie Mirror Mirror, starring Julia Roberts. It's another Snow White story--but for yet another Snow White story, it was fairly well done and enjoyable to watch. And it got me thinking about the main characters, particularly the Queen--and the life lessons I personally can see in her.
The Evil Queen in the classic Snow White story had a good thing going for her. She had a whole kingdom to herself, for starters.
But instead of focusing on everything she already had, she found one thing someone else--Snow White--had, and focused on it until it drove her to unspeakable things. In the end, she lost everything she'd ever had.
And sadly, she didn't even enjoy her blessings while she had them. She obsessed over Snow White's beauty so much, she never had peace of mind or true happiness. She was jaded to the beauty and good that surrounded her. Not appreciating her own bountiful lot in life was her downfall.
Additionally, the Evil Queen had some serious self issues.
She was so into her appearance, she would kill for it. A bit exaggerated, but the underlying point, startlingly, isn't at all unrelatable to us today.
As a woman, I've struggled (and still from time to time do) with not feeling beautiful enough. In our culture, we've been ingrained with this notion that beauty is the foundation of being loved.
Perhaps that's why the idea of getting old and aging is partly so terrifying to many women. We don't want to lose that which makes us lovable. In fact, a fundamental aspect of the psychology of women is the need to be loved. That's partly what makes the ploy so ingenious and so cruel--we've been made to feel we must keep buying products to look beautiful, in order not to lose the love we want and need.
But what if we could un-brainwash ourselves? What if we could come to the realization that Snow White is the one who is right here, instead of following after the Queen?
Snow White was incredibly beautiful, yet she never focused on that. She is generally portrayed as being the sweetest, kindest, and most upright of heart person in the whole world.
If Snow had been turned into a frog, do you think everyone would've suddenly despised her?
And how many people do you think stood by the Queen after her reign fell, though she was the second most beautiful woman in the world? They both had beauty--but one was like a glass ornament: beautiful on the outside, hollow and cold within.
There's nothing wrong with wanting to look your best, and you shouldn't let yourself go. But it's when you take that focus on looking good to unhealthy extremes that you have a problem. And none of us should ever be afraid that we aren't perfect, or to physically age. People don't love a gift just for it's wrapping--and if they do, they're missing out on an awful lot.
A good heart and beauty within always find their way out, and people--anyone worth mentioning--can definitely see it. Even if it isn't in the form of bee-stung ruby red lips.
I'd like to proffer a new approach: Put on a respectable and pleasing appearance, but focus, worry and constantly fuss about your inner beauty--the things and traits that make you Good. Those are the things that truly make you lovable.
And hey--there's nothing that adds to that healthy glow like the rush of doing some little act of kindness for someone, just to be nice! ;)
Another lesson to be learned is this: If you spend your whole life in the pursuit of something evanescent, then when your life comes to fruition, that's all your life and its pursuits will be: vapor that vanishes into thin air as if it had never been there to begin with.
The life pursuits of beauty, trying to impress and prove oneself to others, riches, glory, materialism, and pleasure for pleasure's sake are all empty, and like the most sought after home-cleaning product, they leave no trace behind.
The ones that last forever--even after you're gone from this earth--are family, acts of kindness, friendship, love, teaching and giving to others, and the like.
I think I speak for all of us, when I say that we don't want our lives to just shatter and be discarded like a broken mirror. We want the priorities we had in life to continue on--like a beautiful gentle snow that blankets a castle. We want our little snow flake to be a part of something bigger and more beautiful, something memorable.
I feel sorry for anyone who--like the Queen--falls into the traps enumerated above. They make for a sad, difficult and generally meaningless life. I wouldn't wish any of them on any one.
The Evil Queen had life, but she never lived.
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