Everyone Should Be A Princess

I have always preferred living in a whimsical world of fantasy, mainly as a contrast to the nightmarish scenarios my brain likes to conjure when left to its own devices. From a very young age, I would imagine brain tumors and apocalypses all the live long day. So I frolic, I galavant, I dance in soul-stream, prance in glitter-dust, and consider life as a super hero goddess wizard fairy hobbit sprite. I also talk about being a princess (I am a certified Lady of the Scottish Highlands, so can only move up from there!) and have accidentally created a sort of folklore around myself regarding Unicorns. Half of this is complete nonsense, because nothing makes me feel more grounded and happy and utterly myself than pure ridiculousness. The other half is entirely sincere, in the way that you must believe in anything worth living for. 

If the weather was always warm out and high heels weren't so insanely impractical, I would absolutely wear ball gowns around town, hoofing it like Marie Antoinette and dilly dallying in fields of wildflowers. The main problem is that I think princesses have gotten a little bit of a bad rap. They are often associated with the bad parts of Disney, the submissive gal pining for her prince to save the day. Newer stories are depicting princesses as sassy broads off in quest of a goal, though underpinnings of love still seem to make the heroine weaker than need be. And pink or purple plus a skirt do nothing to help this young lady's sense of strength and self. Don't get me wrong, I am all for feminism. I have been blithely unaware of the real struggles that so many women face because I never took a path that seemed to cross those obstacles. Either that, or I simply didn't stand for them and narcissistically overlooked their very existence. I've had my own trials to be sure, and I have shed many a tear over an undeserving male. But this has never prompted me to want to cut my hair or put on a pair of pants. It has never made me any less interested in living in a castle or wearing a dress made of fresh violets sown together by small woodland creatures. 

Even so, the clothing has very little to do with it. A princess can be equally enchanting in a ball gown or a baseball cap. A real princess is confident and creative, making choices and moving forward. Yes, she by all means demands attention, respect, and anything else she should desire. That doesn't mean she takes it without asking, selfishly waits for it to happen or relinquishes any of the power she was born to radiate. But she does light up the horizon with her dreams and is metaphorically (or not) raised up on a cloud of soul-petals and adored. Why? Because everyone should be a princess. A person who loves and is loved, helps and is helped, creates and is created for. Idealistic? Yes. Naive? Most likely. Absolutely absurd? Without a doubt. But so is life, when you are lucky enough to dream.