Someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. C.S. Lewis

Fairy tales explain what to do, as well as how to cope when you don’t do what you should or you do what you should but the results are terrible. More than self-help books and more than business schools, fairy tales teach you about real life.

Goldilocks teaches you that if your grandmother is sick, bring her some bakery products. And it also teaches you that people who appear to be helpful are usually not, inquisitive people are dangerous and always carry a big, sharp knife. As I always say, it’s not about the prince!

Sleeping Beauty – some people are just mean and there is nothing you can do about it except take a nap.

Jack and Beanstalk – bad business decisions might turn out well

Hansel and Gretel – when venturing into foreign territory, make sure you can figure out how to get back (and don’t waste food!)

Rapunzel – use shampoo AND conditioner

Goldilocks – don’t stop looking until you are satisfied

Elves and Shoemaker – sometimes it’s best to go to sleep and let someone else do the work  

Little Mermaid – if you come from a traditional family and you want something non-traditional, you will lose some (perhaps all) of the closeness with your family

Ugly Duckling – everyone yaps about the wonders of a little black dress, but a WHITE dress is where it’s at

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves – write down your password

Snow White – family can be treacherous and people who don’t look like you might become your best friends.

Beauty and the Beast – judge on behavior, not looks

The Golden Goose – never get an MBA

Bluebeard – don’t marry strangers

Greek myths can be read as a way to explain the unexplainable – your sister fell in love with a twit because she insulted Venus and was shot with an arrow. Fairy tales do the same work – they help get you over the unimaginable. A dear friend is acting strangely? He got a fragment of magic mirror stuck in his eye. You weren’t ghosted by that scrumptious person you met, they were turned into a frog. It happens.

Pandora teaches you that there is always hope and Aladdin teaches you to go out and have adventures.

If it is all going wrong (again), read the Ancient Greeks and read fairy tales.

Medea and Br’er Rabbit will get you through, Darling. I promise.

Charles Folkard