By Leslie Hachtel
The definition of fairytales is: stories denoting the magical, idealized, or extremely happy.
So different from most of our daily lives.
Life is definitely getting harder. The news is more terrible everyday: children are killing children, Mother Nature is angry and more and more people are suffering. Sometimes just getting through the day is difficult.
What helps? Respite. A break. Something better to aim for. And that’s what fairytales give us. The victory over conflict, the answer to uncertainties, the happily ever after.
That’s what romance novels are for. Maybe they don’t convey world-changing ideas or cure disease, but they give us hope. And, as Emily Dickinson said so poignantly:
Hope is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
And what are the stories the romance writers write? Magical stories of good triumphing over evil, true love conquering all and yes — happily ever after.
In times like these, we need to believe there is hope, because without that, I think we might wither. So we read fairytales and hold them close to our hearts and then, stronger, we soldier on.