SILENTLY TIME FLIES, THEN IT'S TUESDAY AND ONE IS 76

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I've been thinking about the phrase "once upon a time" that I discussed in my last blog entry. I asked myself why would anyone (why did I) use that phrase in a work of fiction that is not a fairy tale? I fear I'm guilty of using that phrase frequently. I suppose it represents a lifetime attitude that most of life is a fairytale in the minds of most people. I've used the phrase unconsciously and sarcastically until it's become a sort of writer's tic. 

It's sadly true that most people grow emotionally until they reach the age of 12 or so, then they freeze into that emotional state, half escaped from fairy tales and gods and romantic notions about life, country and family they picked up in the home. They reside in those falsehoods until, in the last decade of their lives, many realize they've been foolish. 

Sometimes, I imagine my alcoholism, my three divorces and all the pain in my life and pain I created in others lives was the price I paid to escape the fairy tales that still entrap so many humans. It's not always comfortable outside the human family that remains sitting around the campfire and endlessly retelling the old fairy tales they continue to live by, but I'd rather live on the fringes than live in the fairy tale. 

What proof do I offer for what I've just said? I look around my world. Would a species of grownup, sensible people create the sort of mockery of life we force ourselves and others to live in if we actually knew better?