Someone recently said that "Prince Charmings are a dying breed."How true.
I doubt I am the only one who nods in agreement. Prince Charmings are indeed a dying breed, and Princess Charmings as well for that matter. Princes or Princesses presupposes honesty, nobility, selflessness, and love unconditionally – regal behavior on some scale superior to that of the common man.
As for myself, I hardly feel “regal” these days nor “princessy” for that matter. I am fresh out of nobility, no longer care for selflessness, and cannot love in spite of the consequences. Not so long ago that would have been a terribly vindictive thing to say but now this is the simple truth that permeates this lifetime. The real world has no place for Princes.
Difficult to accept I know but for most, whatever princely spirits that laid embedded within us departed along with our youth and our naivety. Do truly pristine people, clear of the tarnishing glaze of history, still exist? Unlikely. True, you will find plenty of them among the youthful but at that age it is difficult to distinguish them from the naïve. I used to find that a difficult statement to swallow simply because of the implications that it meant for myself. Coming to terms with one’s own deficiencies is a difficult thing to bear - especially if that thing is your own arrogance in believing in your own self-superiority. I certainly am not above being naïve. Rather, looking back I would say that I was more naïve than most.
Sounding more vindictive, I know. But to that response I would reply, “such are the simple truths of our times.” It is easy to dispel such statements as the salted words of jaded old men when you are, in fact, one of the naïve. It is so easy to believe in inherent benevolence and moral righteousness when one has not fully experienced malice and injustice. You can make lemonade out of lemons, but what if the world doesn’t even care enough to give you lemons to begin with?We have all lied and have been lied to, cheated and have been cheated on, betrayed and betrayed, and overall mistreated.
Can you truly lament the passing of Princes? Or Princesses for that matter? Are we even deserving of their presence?
Indeed, sometimes I feel as if we do not. One has to merely glance at the recent headlines. Myanmar, Sudan, Iraq, Afaghanistan. We are all casualties of each other – spoiled fruit from the passage of time and mutual neglect.
These words may ring true to you, or they may seem alien and oblique. Worry not, they are merely words. Words are only so good to describe but do so little to help you experience. Naivety is just that – the inability to fully comprehend words of wisdom because of the lack of experience. Words can be so unfulfilling as they may describe but do so little to help you feel what they hope to describe. Words can only communicate so much as to relive memories but are ineffective in instilling new ones. For those of you who have been where I have been, seen what I have witnessed, and experienced what I have felt, I hope these words help you remember.We are all prisoners of our own memories.
The abused will not be so willing to trust again, the misled will not be so willing to believe, and most of all, the broken hearted will not love quite so deeply. Memories are a gilded cage, they protect us from that which would harm us but at the same time they keep us from experiencing that which can only be gained from being vulnerable. Love isn’t love if you can’t accept it or give it freely and openly. Walls keep so much harm from getting in but also keeps you from getting out. Living behind a wall is no way to survive. Being angry all the time is no way to live.
If anything, graduating from college, leaving an old relationship, and severing ties with my past life have taught me to believe in humanity even more. How so you may ask? Simple. We are all kindred souls, each and every one of our lives echo each other’s experiences – beauty, love, faith, wretchedness, spite, and loneliness. I have, in so many short months learned that each and every one of us lives with memories – connections to the past and cages from the future.
Everyone around you lives with something deep in their lives that they are trying to get over. In short, everyone is trying to cope. There are no princes or princesses because there are no perfect people. Everyone has lost and everyone remembers. Those hurdles, be they bumps, hills, or mountains, are owned by and real to the person who faces them. It’s hard being a believer all the time and it takes far more courage even still to be a believer knowing that there is nothing left to believe in.
Keep believing. Tomorrow is not so scary. Tomorrow begins with today. In fact, it starts now, at exactly 12.01 a.m.
