Blog 2824 – 07.22.2023

Hansel and Gretel

Today’s Two-Minute Fairytale is also a classic that has stood the test of time. It is a sad dark tale of two children left in the woods and lost. They come across a small cottage made of gingerbread with windows of spun-sugar after wandering all night in the dark. They are so hungry that they break off pieces of the house to eat. They are invited into the house by a kind old lady who turns out to be a witch. A wise Gretel outsmarts the witch and roasts her in the oven where she had intended to bake the fattened-up pair of lost children, eat them, and latter perhaps like another fairytale grind their bones to make her bread.

Yesterday in a TV series I have been re-streaming, The Secretary, one of Madame Secretary McCord’s aids reads a poem in a staff meeting where they are discussing why a particular tragedy that they were unable to avert has them all especially down and troubled.

Here is the poem by Maggie Smith:

Today’s version of Hansel and Gretel has a happy ending, but sadly all endings are not happy. Still we try to make this place beautiful for ourselves, our children, and theirs.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10r1quE7oPQDkZnc1Tl3aeer5TXh5GSvW/view?usp=drivesdk

Hansel and Gretel