The Nutcracker

This afternoon, I went to see The Nutcracker with Annabelle, my 4 year old niece. I used to take ballet and loved it, so I was excited when my sister asked me to take her. Anna loves princesses and dresses and everything girly, so we were sure she'd love the ballet too. Neither of us much enjoyed it, however. Anna, because she was scared by the mice dance, and me because Anna insisted on leaving after watching the mice dance.

I suppose I've taken it for granted that all stories have good and evil characters. I'm less disturbed by the bad ones b/c I know that its just a story and that the good characters usually win in the end anyways. Anna, on the other hand, is very troubled by evil characters. She tends to focus on them - like the Grinch of Dr. Seuss, or the "Tricky Wolf" of Little Red Riding Hood - she gets very bothered by them. "Why?" she asks - "why do they do bad things?" "why are they in the story at all?" "I don't like them." I don't have a good answer for her. I don't know why. I'm glad, though, that I've grown up to no longer fear them as she does.

I confess though that I did feel slightly anxious watching a movie not too long ago. As I sat on the edge of my seat, I told myself to relax b/c, afterall, it was just a movie and surely the good guys would win in the end. As predicted, it all worked out. Afterwards I thought "I wish that were the case in real life" - isn't it?