Maagy is a Rule Breaker

By Virginia Burton Stringer

April 2018

She has always been a spoiled child, this impetuous princess.

Now, as a budding young woman, she is learning the nuances of negotiation, but still, that headstrong child exists within.

As an Academy graduate, a member of Brotherhood, and a Knight of the Realm, Maagy is bound by a code of honor to be trustworthy and righteous. Yet, protocol is a gray area where she is concerned. She is a stickler for following military code and laws of the land, but Palace protocols are another story. Protocols are the “It’s-always-been-done-this-way-so-therefore…” sorts of loosely written rules the Royals are supposed to follow, such as, “No one touches the Queen in public”. For Maagy this is like waving a red flag in front of a charging bull. She relishes the challenge. Maagy recognizes that the old ways no longer make sense. They are not relevant to the current conditions. She blazes new trails for the women of her time, albeit a fictitious world.

Princess Maagy is a shrewd, savvy, sly, smart strategist who values structure. However, when protocols seem arbitrary and make no practical sense, she says, “Protocol be damned!”. She steps into the ring and is not afraid to defend her position. She is not unlike many trailblazing women of more modern times like Rosa Parks and Madam Curie. Emmeline Pankhurst of the Women’s Social and Political Union was a rule-breaker. Her leadership gave rise to the Suffrage movement world-wide for women’s right to vote and own land. Where would we be today without these brave women who dared to say, “Protocol be damned!”?

So, when is it okay to break protocol, violate the rules that have always existed? We spend a lifetime preaching and teaching our young ones to obey the law, be compliant, be respectful, but when is it time for them to decide what is right for their world as it evolves and changes?

In Maagy’s case, it is when an horrendous act of violence occurs that forces her to take control and take action. She has to think differently. She has to do what no one else can, what no other woman ever has, as she suddenly has great responsibility heaped upon her shoulders. Her unfettered, indomitable strength of self-direction and stubbornness are her bulwark.

Her sense of righteousness and her gut instinct that she can triumph over evil and set her world right again are part genius and part naïveté. However, in her inexperienced exuberance, she has the wisdom to surround herself with sage advisors who’s counsel she values but does not always follow.

Maagy is not dissimilar to the spunky, tenacious teenagers currently fed up and speaking out for change. Their calls to action to walk out of class, march in the streets, and demand reforms in our laws are tantamount to Maagy’s breaking protocol.

And yet, how many times lately have we seen the naysayers, who pretend to be sage Old Souls, deriding and criticizing these braves Young Souls for their naïveté? Calling them names and spewing vitriol upon them for standing up and speaking out on issues long overdue for overhaul?

To this I say, watch your backs, Old Souls!

You who have become too set in your ways, too blinded by your perceived power, and too comfortable in your ivory tower offices, these young warriors, these righteous Knights of Their Realms, are coming after you; not with swords and shields and daggers and armor, but with votes! With voices that will not be silenced!

They will be the modern-day Maagys who will win the war with their righteous causes!

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