I didn’t intend to write about Rumpelstiltskin today, but I loved this image and so I re-read the story. I had forgotten the ending. The once-poor miller’s daughter, who is now Queen, manages to wiggle out of her original deal by discovering Rumpelstiltskin’s name. She uses her messengers to search the kingdom for it. Smart use of resources! One of the messengers happens upon Rumpelstiltskin singing his name to himself and duly reports it back to the Queen.
It’s one of the few stories I can remember where the female truly conquers being a victim. She was first potentially trapped by her father and then potentially trapped by a weirdo with an even weirder name. She escaped both times.
As an adult reading this story I want to know what happened afterwards. Was she a better Queen because she dodged all those bullets? Did the messenger get appropriately rewarded? How old was the King? Did they have a happy marriage? Did she forgive her father?
I never thought about these things as a kid. I was far more interested in the romance of the fairy tales I read. Oh, she married the King! They lived happily ever after! Gosh, that candy house sure sounded yummy.
I completely missed the point. I was so much more interested in the fantasy and my perspective altered my comprehension.
Now, as I think about perspective, I wonder where else I am missing the point?
Sometimes it’s purely that we can’t see the bigger picture. This can be the case with things like time spent on social media or sleep. We don’t calculate the impact. The totality of the hours in a year we spend scrolling other people’s lives is somewhat hidden. The impact on our health from the hours of sleep we skip is a future problem, not today’s concern.
I learnt a lot about perspective when I went to Antarctica in 2018. Just stepping foot on the ice was an exercise in perspective; the vastness of the white on white landscape making me feel beyond insignificant. Only to then see, up close, the fragility of our environment. The truth of the significance of my actions was suddenly in technicolor.
On returning I made a personal pledge to implement one change to be a more responsible consumer. My focus was single-use containers. I decided not to order delivery food services or use disposable coffee cups or water bottles. Cool, but meanwhile I order delivery-everything-else and don’t think about the packaging or, frankly, what I really need. It’s too easy just to click the delivery button. I think I might be missing the point.
I have stopped patting myself on the back. It’s time I get perspective.
I’m as wired to convenience in my life as I was once wired for fantasy and romance. My actions would suggest convenience is my higher value. How can I recalibrate my actions to prioritize conscious consumption?
It’s an observation, not a judgment. But it’s one of those Simon Cowell telling you that your audition was rubbish observations. There is a judgment and it’s valid.
It’s good to keep ourselves in check, especially where back-patting is involved. Check our perspective and be sure we are not caught up in a fantasy about our efforts. Take a good look in the Mirror Mirror On The Wall every now and then and see where we might be missing the point?