Down with fairy tales

In the familiar Wizard of Oz story, Dorothy starts her journey toward Oz following a yellow brick road. She collects friends throughout her journey. When she finally ends up in Oz, she has to overcome several obstacles before finally being given a blessing by the wizard. Then, she returns home to Kansas.

Here's the familiar story of a person today. People start their journeys toward adulthood following the American Dream of being whoever they want to be. They reach adulthood only to realize that the friends they picked up along the way led them off the American Dream and they didn't realize it, or the friends were in it for themselves and they are abandoned only to have to start over again with friendships in adulthood. Adulthood does bring its share of obstacles and often they end in job loss, identity loss, depression, or other dire straits. Then, if people are strong enough to have a spiritual experience, that is see the wizard, then so much baggage has been collected that they may or may not have the stamina to make it out of this life and into the next with a sense of wonder of the Creator of the universe.

Well, one of the stories was designed to be a fairy tale, one a reality check. But I have to wonder about fairy tales. They blow so much smoke of idealism into the world that they are not appreciated any longer. When is the last time you knew a young person who knows fairy tales or was told a fairy tale. That's because reality TV has dominated the air waves. And maybe they should since fairy tales take people nowhere in their worlds.