Posted on February 7, 2004 by Jenna

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Once upon a time, there was a wonderful girl named Danielle, but her wicked stepmother made her sit in the ashes of a gnostic philosophy; and for this reason, her stepsisters called her ‘Gnostella’. She became a beautiful princess and met her handsome prince, and together they overcame many hardships and sorrows. Down they cast the wicked witch, and the wicked stepmother, and other instrumentalities of their torment; and to their magic land they brought peace; and they lived happily ever after.

In the fields, under their rule, there toiled a beautiful peasant and a handsome one; and they too overcame many sorrows. They strove, and from the earth brought forth life; and the swords of circumstance and pestilence struck them down.

They stood before the thrones of the gods, and said, “What is it that the prince and princess have that we have not? Why should we not live as happily and as eternally as they?”

The left god and the right god turned their faces from the pair; but the god in the middle leaned forward.

“The world is not fair,” he said, “but as we make it so. Dreams are not real, but as we craft them. Hope, and magic, and life—these things are choices.”

“You make excuses,” said the beautiful peasant. “I chose hope, and magic, and life with my every breath.”

“You can’t live a life without dreams,” her husband said.

The gods heard these words with shame; and the left god and the right god rose from their thrones. Into the darkness behind their places, they walked, and what happened to them thereafter is not known. The beautiful peasant and the handsome one took their places on the thrones; and why this should have happened is a mystery. Only the old men and old women in their huts, their mouths gaping with missing teeth, can understand; and what it means, they do not say.