40+FAB Blog

Princess or happily ever after

I come from a generation that grew up on books as our entertainment, I am not sure what generation we are called.
The fairy tales were possibly the most gripping of stories and they made a huge impression on our minds when we  were just learning to read. We read such stories possibly hundreds of times.

If I were to ask a room full of that generation what were the first lines in any of these story books, you would hear a loud chorus of “Once upon a time…”. I would probably get a plethora of answers for what was in the middle of the story, but the commonality would have been of a Prince, Princess, Dragon, Witch, etc. Again, if I asked what was the last line in the story, the answers would be resounding, “…And they lived happily ever after”.

I have come to understand that one of the strengths of marketing products is the association of the product with the psychological needs of man. Most teenagers of my generation got lured to smoking cigarettes because we believed that someone who smoked was cool and successful as depicted in the adverts. We did not necessarily want the cigarette as much as we wanted to be the life of the party and pillar of the in-crowd.

I keep hearing people say that it is every girls dream to marry the Prince and become a Princess, but being a princess is the product. What every girl really dreams of is happily ever after! Thats what we all want, and thats what we were sold subconsciously in those stories.

Ever wonder why someone got the dream job, married the ideal spouse, signed the enviable contract, became very famous, yet they seemed to despise it all and wanted out? 
The answer is not complicated, they became the princess, but the happily ever after was missing.

Let us learn to look beyond the product, status, wealth, achievements and all that, and tune in to what is really important to our soul. Happily ever after does not come with an event, it is a lifelong process and attitude that we must be committed to actualising everyday no matter where we stand.