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When we were kids we grew up on stories of Snow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, and a ton of other fairy tales. Grimm's fairy tales were twisted, turned into something completely enjoyable, but even then they were nothing but a fantasy world. The good were beautiful and the wicked were ugly. The evil always got what was coming to them and the good not only married royalty, but someone who loved them dearly.

It fills people's heads with the notion of love at first sight, something we never really stop trying for, but are these really the sort of notions that we want our children growing up with? The ugly are evil. Once you get married you'll live happily ever after. If a good person was killed by an evil person they won't stay dead.

Personally, these are the sort of notions I grew up thinking. I'll admit, most of them I don't think I've let go. I always tried to be the good kid, do what's right, follow your heart, and I still do. That's the upside, right? Well, there's a little catch in that fairy tale line of thinking. I'm not beautiful. Don't try telling me I am, because I know I'm not. 200 pounds, and I'm on the hairy side as far as women go.

Let me tell you, when you realize a prince isn't coming, you're okay with that. But when no one else is coming either, your world takes a good bashing. Yes, we want our children's innocence to be preserved, but the notion of a happy ending every time is ridiculous. If the wolf eats your grandmother, she's not coming back. They don't swallow people whole. Do we really want our kids growing up with a distorted perception of reality? So what do you think? Should we really be telling fairy tales to our kids, or should we wait until they're old enough to understand the concept of fiction?

Does anybody realize that "fairy tales" started as stories to keep kids from wondering off into the woods? The original Grimm's tales were horrific stories most with out a happy ending. The stories were graphic and filled with death and the beheading of peoples, and other fun things...

Actually, the Grimm's fairy tales started out as spinning room stories for the women, but as time went on they got turned into kid's stories. When they were written down by the brothers, they were in the transformation stage. The original Grimm's tales did in fact have happy endings, they were just very graphic. One story I read, The Juniper Tree, was about a girl who was beheaded by her stepmother, who then pinned it on her daughter so they both cut the child up and put her in a stew, which they then ate at dinner with their father. The daughter buried her half sister's bones and the dead girl was transformed into a bird. The bird went around singing and collecting items and then sang back home. When her father came out, he got shoes. Then her sister came out and she got jewelry. Then the stepmother came out, and she got a millstone dropped on her. Then the bird turned back into the girl. Oo That's the sort of thing I was talking about.

Stories are important.

I can't stress this enough. The moral of the story is not the most important part. I mean yes, it's important, but not as much as the way stories present the concept of something else.

I don't beleive in fiction. I don't beleive in what is 'real', and what is not 'real'. I only beleive in what I know, and I know the way stories make you reach for something more, because it happened to me. It is happening to me.

In my world, stories are no less true than my own story. I have seen the way a story comes to life, and I have made stories that I have written come alive before.

And I love it.