Saturday, February 07, 2009

Happily Ever After Points

Happily Ever After Points

Growing up on Disney and lots of fairy tales, I have been thinking as of late that people with happy, interesting lives never "win the story" in fact, those people who are happy and have what they want usually turn out to be a villain or some sort of mentor like person just trying to help the protagonist along.

The sad, wretched, orphans whom nobody likes or cares about are the only ones who can really go out to seek their fortune and actually have a hope and a half of getting it: whether that be a marrying a prince or princess, winning the science fair, or getting all the treasure...

In Fairy Tales, the prerequisites for having an adventure usually are pretty bad. Parents and siblings have to be killed, orphanages have to be endured, you must be really bad at whatever you're going to get once the story is all over... so on and so forth. For example, in a piece of pretty modern literature, Harry Potter has to endure the Dursleys for ten long years. He was really raking in the Happily Ever After Points. Even in school, the points didn't stop coming to him. Did Ron get to be the hero? No! Because he had a perfectly good family who loved him. And it wasn't perfect and he didn't have a lot of money, so, ok, he got to be a side kick. He only acquired that many happily ever points.

I don't have a complete system for what terrible thing that needs to be endured is worth more than some other terrible thing. And most people I explain this to, almost immediately relate it to karma, but karma it is not. In karma, if you are good, good things happen. With Happily Ever After Points, the more miserable you are plus how happy you can pretend to be, the better your life will get in the long run.

Right now, I'm cleaning toilets, none of my friends are talking to me save two, and I'm feeling pretty wretched, but I still manage to wear a happy face. I think I've gotten a few points in the last couple of days, but not enough to ever really win the story. But a few more very bad terrible days and we should be down for trading in the Happily Ever After Points for The End!

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Yeah,  I wouldn't take me too seriously :) It's all in fun.

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