Yes, there are six days left before the Allsorts Ball - in aid of Cornwall Hospice Care, at Lanhydrock Hotel and Golf Club - and there are still a few tickets available!
And with preparations in full swing, I'm suddenly aware that I haven't got a dress yet! Which got me thinking about princesses, and stories and fairy tales, the way that we all like to look and feel amazing, - and by 'we' - I mean the royal 'we', that extends across both sexes, not just my female counterparts. I know that people are booking hair appointments, buying shirts, searching out those hidden gems that can be found in all the hospice shops, and when I finish laying the tracks and the film for the weekend, I will be rushing around to do it all in a few hours last minuet as normal. But last minute or not, like everyone else I want to look and feel amazing.
Before the media was the prime source of what is and isn't amazing, before you could be part of the princess saga that is what wedding dress? what designer? how will Kate look? you only really got a glimpse or a description of a princess in a fairy story. You know the ones that were read to you when you were small, where there was always a beautiful girl, a grumpy horrible women of power and age, and some sort of charming young male character. It was up to you as the listener or the reader to translate the description into an image, to choose how to see your prince or princess and how to make them come alive, what ever the outcome it was all about telling a story.
I like stories, and most of what I do everyday revolves around making stories work in the real world, but I've never really wanted to be a princess. My perception of fairy tales has always been that they are really stories for girls, despite the dragons and the good vs. evil plots, fairy tales are always about relationships between women. On the surface they are wrapped with a red bow and happy thoughts, underneath there is always a bigger picture, bigger than the princesses that we aspire to and the princes that they marry. The happy ending that we all enjoy works because the true worth of the heroine is discovered, and somehow this promises us that one day we will also be discovered and we will be seen as special.
The truth is, that we are all already special. It doesn't matter what we put on, how many times we do our hair and repaint our nails, what suit you wear or where it came from - everyone has their own story for which they are the hero, and however the story is told or presented the people that matter most will always read it correctly.
When the stories surrounding the hospice and the work it does in Cornwall are shown to all those guests on the 5th of February, there will be more to the message than the red bow its wrapped in. You should come and see for yourself...
...Six days and counting
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