Picture Book

I don't like my title. Oh well.

Picture Book
His gentle dumb expression turnd at length
The Eye of Eve to mark his play; he glad
Of her attention gaind, with Serpent Tongue
Organic, or impulse of vocal Air,
His fraudulent temptation thus began.
- Book 9, lines 527-531, Paradise Lost by John Milton


My children identify animals,
name and order according to their kinds.
We turn to reptiles, son and daughter
shrieking, “Snakes are scary!”
and I agree, an after-Eden Eve.

But being ten, I watched a garter glide
between my hands, my voice tasting innocent
on his tongue. I followed his twist
over my wrist, the simple movement
like memory, so steady the snake’s body
trickled like mist pooling on leaves.

We turn the page in the picture book –
eagles, owls, cranes, flamingos, doves –
celebrate the birds of peace, strength, paradise
who cast their shadows on the earth
and dive, snatch the snake from wild grasses,
smooth path trailing away from a tree,
a corner of the garden stolen, hunger satisfied.

Sleeping Beauty, Part II

We watched Sleeping Beauty again tonight. Lydia loves this movie - she actually sits on the couch and watches the whole thing, which doesn't even happen with Shrek, and they LOVE Shrek. So, Sleeping Beauty is a huge hit for Lydia. After Elvis went to bed, I let Lydia stay up and watch the rest of the movie, although when Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather put the kingdom to sleep, I thought for sure Lydia was going to fall asleep too.

As we watched, though, I started to think about how allegorical this movie is to the God story. So often, the church is called Christ's bride. At the beginning of the movie, the beautiful Princess Aurora (dawn...), is born, and she is precious. But because Maleficent wasn't invited to participate in the whole affair, she picks up an eternal grudge against Aurora and is determined to destroy her. It is the same with people - Adam and Eve are tempted away from God and spend the rest of history trying to dodge Maleficent/Satan.

So to protect the bride, she's hidden away in the woodcutter's cottage until the ripening of time. They rename her Briar Rose. Then, at just the right time in history, the Prince meets the Princess, Christ comes to marry his Bride, the church. His father doesn't think he's picked the right girl -- the prince fell for a peasant girl?? -- but indeed, this is the true Bride of the Prince, both peasant girl and princess.

While the prince is going to meet his bride, all hell breaks loose, and Maleficent has her way with the princess, and then has her way with the prince. For a few hours, it looks as if evil has conquered all - she has the Prince in her dungeon, the whole kingdom is asleep, even the bride, and she is laughing.

And as the Prince battles all the forces evil can throw at him, he has to fight through a field of thorns (crown of thorns, anyone?). And then, not to give in too easily, Maleficent spirals in and faces the Prince head-to-head. And what does the Prince do but stab evil with the sword of truth.

Christ conquers death. He conquers Maleficent and awakens the church/bride/princess. The rest of the kingdom springs back to life and color, delighted and surprised to see the prince and princess come riding in to the kingdom. There is much rejoicing ;) And then, my favorite part, the bride/church spends the remainder of the movie arguing over whether the bride should be pink or blue. We always get hung up on the unimportant details, don't we?

It's always a pleasant surprise to find these parallels in movies. We learn so much from the stories that are told to us - I don't think we even realize it sometimes, but it's there. Good triumphing over evil, the Prince - Christ - rescuing the Princess - the Church/Bride of Christ, at all costs.

It's no wonder the fairy tales speak to our hearts, right? It's the same romance that has been told every generation since the beginning of time. God creates man for relationship, the relationship is fractured and complicated by evil, God spends the rest of history trying to draw us back to him, fighting over and over again for good. I love a good story.

Everything You Need to Know about the Enemy

You know those posters, "Everything I ever needed to know I learned in Kindergarten?" Well, tonight I bring you - everything I ever needed to know about the enemy I learned from watching Sleeping Beauty:

1.) The Enemy Shows Up Uninvited
2.) The Enemy Bestows Gifts, Which One Usually Expects to Be Good, but Certainly End in Death
3.) Getting Rid of All Possible Weapons of Evildoing Will Not Stop the Enemy
4.) You Can't Reason With the Enemy
5.) The Enemy Really Is "All Bad"

Fauna: Well, perhaps if we reason with her. Flora: Reason? Merryweather: With
Maleficent? Fauna: Well, she can't be all bad. Flora: Oh, yes, she can.

6.) The Enemy Ruins Everything - Especially One's Nicest Flowers
7.) The Enemy Anticipates Your Next Move
8.) The Enemy Knows a Lot, but Doesn't Know Anything about Love or Kindness
9.) The Enemy is Not Very Happy

Merryweather: But what won't she expect, she knows everything. Fauna: Oh
but she doesn't dear. Maleficent doesn't know anything about love, or
kindness, or the joy of helping earnest. You know, sometimes I don't think
she's really very happy.

10.) The Enemy has a Hoard of Servants to Help Find Our Weak Spots
11.) The Enemy Hunts Out All of Our Weak Spots, No Matter How Hard We Try to Hide
12.) The Enemy Tells Us the Worst-Case Scenario and Makes Us Believe It
13.) The Enemy Rejoices in Other People's Pain and Suffering

Maleficent: Come, my pet. Let us leave our noble prince with these happy
thoughts. A most gratifying day. For the first time in sixteen years I
shall sleep well.

14.) The Enemy Will Do Everything Possible to Keep the Story From Reaching its Happily Ever After
15.) The Enemy is a Huge, Fire-Breathing Dragon That Can Only Be Defeated by the Sword of Truth.

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Brandon laughs because I love fairy tales. I love Disney movies - especially the older movies, but Disney has redeemed itself as of late, too, with such great movies as Meet the Robinsons (which I cry after, always), The Incredibles, Toy Story, and more. I love the princesses and their innocence, the way they wait to be rescued, the princes and their noble steed and their courage and the ways they romance the bride. I love the goofy supporting characters that bring along the lighter side and also have their own ways of trying to make it all better but inserting their own goofs in the process - unknowingly complicating the end results.

I love it all - even the villains, who give us such great lessons in the character of evil, the nature of evil, just like Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty. She's wicked. She's miserable. She's convinced that if she makes the rest of the world miserable, it'll make her happy. Ah, yes, so easy to recognize evil when it's tall, dark, and grotesque. I wish it could be like that all of the time, instead of being enticing, attractive, fun, and only a little bit guilt-inducing or conscience-pricking.

I must go now - Meet the Robinsons is on, and I just can't help myself. I mean, there's a black hat with claws and one red eye. It has "evil" written all over it.