It's a bleak little parable, I suppose, but a hopeful one, too.
Start with the fairy-tale paradigm: the weeping princess imprisoned in a tower, under some threat or another, while a white knight rides to her rescue.
Pretty thrilling, hey? But it's just a story. In real life, the white knight's got a vested interest in keeping the princess locked in the tower: as soon as she is rescued, he's out of a job.
Worse yet if the princess gets out on her own. If someone happens by and tells the princess there's a ladder from her cell's balcony to the ground, just out her sight, the white knight will become enraged.
Me, I have always had to be a self-rescuing princess (with a hint or two about finding the ladders), and I figured out the truth about white knights a long time ago: they don't have your best interests at heart, only their own.
Dunno but sounds like a pretty cavalier attitude for a true white night. But then rescuing random princesses and riding off into the unset alone sounds a little off as well
ReplyDeleteInteresting thought thread for a monday
I'm kind of wondering where this is going to??? :)
ReplyDeleteSomehow, it has never occurred to me that a White Knight (or a Black Knight) might come to my rescue. From a very young age I started rebelling against the thought that anyone should be responsible for me - other than me, of course.
ReplyDeleteHere's a book of fairy tales for Roberta:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practical_Princess_and_other_Liberating_Fairy_Tales