Happily Ever After...
"Happily ever after" was never a future I considered. After all, the concept of "happily ever after" was only in fairy tales and Disney movies. But if I had to reflect on what "happily ever after" meant to me if I lived in a fantasy world, it would be to see all my dreams come true. This is a pretty broad, generalized statement; after all, what are these dreams, you may ask? I present to you my "happily ever after."
Starting with the more shallow desires, if I were in my "happily ever after," I would want to live in an enormous mansion with the finest butlers and chefs. Inside the home, I would like a fully decked out gym with all the equipment one could imagine, an Olympic-sized swimming pool with a jacuzzi on the side, and an excellent indoor-turf soccer field. Also, I would want the best office in the world, with monitors all around, a computer with the best GPU and CPU, and to top it off, a nice leather chair. Last but not least, I would have an indoor movie theater with free popcorn.
Next, I look at an even far-fetched "happily ever after" means to me. For me, It would be mean that there would be no suffering and hate in the world, that every day when I look at the news, there would only be positive acts of kindness being reported, not mass homicides or widespread wildfires. Each person would respect everyone equally, and no person would treat anyone as lesser. Everyone would get an equal chance for all opportunities, and anybody could access information at any socioeconomic level. There would be more investment in education and ideally no investment in the military because everyone would be living in peace, working together to make the world a better place. Instead of creating new wars, the world would fight together against diseases such as COVID and significant disasters like global warming and innovate together to explore outer space and create earth-friendly power sources such as more nuclear power plants. This is my "happily ever after." It is just a *little* bit more fantastical than reality, but of course, this is just my wish under a shooting star.
I think I'd agree with you that a truly fantastic "happily ever after" is a mix of person prosperity and a greater level of peace and justice in the world. Moreover, I think this is also a theme that appears in movies and media as well. "happily ever after " for our protagonists, especially in films set against a war or some other negative event, are often accompanied by the end of said wars or some other event that signal the beginning of positive change for large society. In this sense, would you agree that "happily ever after" is as much a collective idea as an individual one?
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DeleteYes I believe the idea of "happily ever after" is as much a collective idea as an individual idea. It could be that media has shaped our opinions on what "happily ever after" truly means but I do believe happily ever after usually comes after hard tribulations whether it be wars or living on the streets.
DeleteI agree with Lihong's deduction to the piece. I like the writing style and your flow of ideas. I, however, feel like that the idea of end of world wars and world peace is a little bit too fantastical. Nevertheless, I like your approach and the specificity of the description you gave on your personal happily ever after. I think happily ever after is individual, similar to the idea of the plurality of the meaning of happiness. Overall, great read.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words. I also believe my idea of end of world wars and world peace is also way too fantastical but one can only dream.
DeleteI'm intrigued by your statement that happily ever after was "never a future you considered" -- why is that? Why is it relegated to fairy tales and Disney movies? Is there something about the idea that is inherently fantastical? Can it not exist in the real world?
ReplyDeleteI think I never considered a future of happily ever after because growing up, my dad always told me life is cruel. There are so many little things that fairy tales and Disney movies do not consider, after the ending of "happily ever after," everything is all good, nothing is wrong anymore. However, in reality, that's never the case. Life's an iterative process, where one has to constantly go through challenges in order to grow. If we simply had a happily ever after ending, our life would be constant, nothing would change. There are also so many psychological factors that movies and fairy tales do not consider, like it somehow always portrays the bad guys as the greedy ones and the good guys as the perfect, no flaws person. In reality, we all have greed in us, whether how much there is in us is dependent on each person, but no one is free from this innate characteristic. Another is survival, most people wouldn't risk their lives doing risky, life-threating tasks, yet the prince charming always seems to have that mentality to throw his life away as if he didn't value it in the first place. I think this oversimplification makes it easier for kids to understand the simpler moral message of the story but I think in reality, life is a lot less streamlined then we think.
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