FAIRY TALES

     What a day! Almost schizophrenic. First we saw a Disney tale, the play Anastasia, about the mysterious youngest daughter of the Tsar with the question of is she alive or not? It is not just her survival, but what that survival would mean in a threatening new world where the anointed are struck down by the lowest levels of society. What happens when society is upended like that? On what can people depend? How does one structure a life when the very fabric of society is no more as it was? Interesting questions.
     Then we turn to the night and the long awaited yet feared fourth episode of the last season of Game of Thrones. What shocks would take place? Who would we lose? Would the alliance stick together or would it fracture under pressure? And how would that play out as it went up against an enemy equipped with the latest technological advances, a huge army, and a deterination to let NOTHING stand in its way - the permanent rule of Cersei and House Lannister of her descent.
     Two 'realities' clashing. In one, the audience awaits a Disney ending and gets it, but there is something awry here. The play was splendid, the acting superb and the audience cooperative but still.... The music was not as good as other Disney plays, nothing that one would walk out singing and continue to do so. The ending has our Anastasia finding her 'prince' but there was still the hole in life - she walked away from her role as Grand Duchess, the only surviving daughter of the murdered Tsar and what did that mean for Russia and the world? It left one realizing that fairy tales do not always come true, not 100%.
     On the other hand we have GoT. Whew!! Ups and downs, areas of grave concern, mourning the deaths of a dragon and a wonderful young lady denied her future, murdered by a beheading in front of her beloved. Sound familiar? And a cruel and determined Queen, the self declared ruler of her world, awaiting all with a deranged mind and a warped soul. Sound familiar?
     She refuses to concede, to save the people. She refuses to see that though the dragon was killed, the people mourned that death far more than they will mourn her death - should it take place, for one never knows, does one? She is the real monster, overturning traditions, rending society, turning lives upside down and causing insecurity to such a great degree that practicalities begin to overtake honesty and love, loyalty begins to go by the board and people begin to leave to carry out their agendas in their own way and time. Sound familiar?
     Today we are all living in a GoT atmosphere and world. We have demented leaders who think nothing of throwing away people, of violating contracts and promises, of making allies of enemies and enemies of allies, all the while thinking only of oneself. We have a leader who refuses to recognize that he is illegitimate in his office and the mutterings that he will refuse to cede his office should he lose (oh, please let that happen) the election should scare you into the next century!!That is a direct threat to the country, to the status quo, to all that we treasure and strive to achieve. 
     So are we living in  a fairy tale not quite coming true or are we living in a violent GoT world where blood and selfishness are the coinage of the realm and one can not rely on the survival of anyone or any idea. Frightening, is it not?
     Should that happen, well, there would be the Civil War that ripped Russia apart and that has not yet let her live in a democratic society, not yet allowed that attempt to survive,lending agita and fear to the world. Will we live in the frightful world of civil war wherein neighbor against neighbor and family against family will be the norm, where one's loyalties are tested every day? Or will we give in and give up and turn to a world of constant violence, of poverty vs great wealth to the few, a world where nothing is as it was or is as it should be? Sound familiar?
     So where do we go and what path do we take? I do not know but we do not have any dragons to save the day nor give their lives in the name of their 'mother'. In fact, I am not sure what we do have as we have seen the gradual blackening of the souls of the Republican members of Congress, the loss of moral rectitude, of pride in oneself, of love for the country over servitude towards their master.
     As the song goes: "I (We) need a hero". 
   The question is - will we get one or is it that we need to turn into heroes ourselves? Interesting thought that is it not?