"The point, gentlemen...is that they lived"

Is it wrong to love fairy tales? I can get completely lost in a story, especially fairy tales. One of my favorite films is The Count of Monte Cristo. If you haven't seen it, you're missing out. I only mention this movie because it gives me cover for another favorite movie, which is the whole point of this blog post. It is called Ever After starring Drew Barrymore and Dougray Scott (crush) and is the Cinderella story with a bit of creative license. It's by far my favorite contemporary version of the classic tale, which has, of course Greek origins. (Greece sure makes a lot of claims.) 


It is the last line of the story, which refers to the newly-married Prince and Danielle (Cinderella), that offers a high note which makes you think. The Prince and Danielle are commenting on their own fairy tale while looking into each other's eyes. It goes something like this, with thanks to script-o-rama:

And we, Princess, are supposed to live happily ever after.
    
                   
Says who?

                       
Do you know...I don't know.

    
(woman) My great-great-grandmother's
portrait hung in the university...

                  
... up until the revolution.

                     
By then, the truth of the romance...

                    
... had been reduced to a simple fairy tale.

                     
And while Cinderella and her Prince
did live happily ever after...
    
                   
... the point, gentlemen...

                  
... is that they lived.

And this is where I start boo hooing every time. I look around at everything I have...think about all the places I've been...consider all the friends and family who are so near and dear to me... gasp at this city of wonder in which I live, and yet I still feel it necessary to ask myself, "Am I really living?" I want to do more than just observe the beauty that surrounds me. I want to actively dig in, suck, chew, wrestle, discover, toil, absorb, and adore every moment of my life so deeply that I will have no regrets about how I used my time on this planet.


I don't need a fairy tale. But I do want someone to say about me, once my time has come and gone...


"She really lived."