The Myth of Happily Ever After

The Myth of Happily Ever After

                I read a lot. I always have. As a child, I was read to when I wasn’t able to read for myself, but then I devoured everything in the house, at school and at the library. My favorite stories were the fairy tales like Beauty and the Beast, family stories like Heidi, Little House on the Prairie, Little Women, and animal stories like Black Beauty and Beautiful Joe. I liked romance stories like the Love Comes Softly series. I enjoyed happily ever after.

I expected real life to mirror all my favorite stories. I thought families almost always got along. Families were supposed to like each and like being together. They would sacrifice anything and everything for each other. Even when animals were mistreated, someone would save them. Trials came and it made the people stronger. In the romance stories, couples fell in love and lived happily ever after.

                I grew up and married my own Prince Charming. We didn’t just live happily ever after. We had problems, illness, trials, and sometimes it was hard. Marriage was difficult at times. But it was still good. It is still good. It just isn’t a fairy tale. It’s real life.

Families don’t always get along. They don’t even always like each other. Sometimes they split up and refuse to be there for each other. I actually like the fantasy world here better because I hate to be disappointed. I want everyone to get along and to enjoy each other’s company. I like family get- togethers and family parties. I want my family to be one that they could write a book about and people would be impressed by. But again I live in real life and not everyone gets along. Not everyone wants to be together. I am saddened by this, but I can’t change what others do or want. Real life does disappoint; relationships do, too. But some relationships surpass stories and are a real blessing.

Pets can be wonderful, but sometimes they are more work than wonderful. I have had pets that delight, and I have had pets that I can barely tolerate. I have been bitten and I have been loved immeasurably with unmerited devotion. I have had blind pets, deaf pets, sick pets, and pets I wish I didn’t have. Some were extraordinary; some were a pain. They were not all loyal like in the books, but some were.

Since real life has taught me that not every story has a ‘happily ever after’ ending, do I quit reading? Am I disheartened by the fact that real life isn’t the same as the stories I have read all my life? No, I don’t quit reading. I still love to read, to escape into a fantasy world of another place, another time, another’s story. I get to experience things I wouldn’t otherwise get a chance to try. I can have a mini vacation, a diversion or distraction from real life.

‘Happily Ever After’ may be a myth. It may be a fantasy. It may only be a dream. It may be where your imagination takes flight and it makes you smile, relax, or let go. As long as you don’t let it disappoint, as long as you know life is never perfect, accept the myth. Find a way to claim as much as is possible. Strive towards it. Know that while life is not perfect and happily ever after may not exist in this world, life can be good, very good indeed. True ‘happily ever after’ will only be in Heaven.