A man once proclaimed Prince Charming doesn't exist. In the act of tearing down the exotic hedonist temple, he tried to do what no man has ever done - not even Prince Charming - to salvage the man without the soul. For it never once occured that there was such a thing as Prince Charming not because he failed to exist, but that he existed so often and so wonderfully it was inevitable. What I mean to say is this: the greatest attack on human virtue has come by the abolishment of Prince Charming and the desolation of Sleeping Beauty.
At the root of a problem there is always a conundrum of storytelling too quickly disimissed. In the story of Prince Charming we find a man facing a dragon that at every twist and turn is ready to consume his flesh and strip his bones. We find a man who cannot take, but must over-come. And in the darkest hour his triumph comes from an otherworldly commitment, a sprinkle of magic we're still puzzling our puzzler to understand. Prince Charming isn't charming because he's perfect, he's perfect because he is a prince and is still charming.
However, in the destruction of our consumate temple we have lost our prize, the pinnicle of our resolution: an unfeigned woman. Our humble beginnings brings us to humble endings. In the morning twilight we find a woman. Her beauty is unbudded, her virtue is unfelt, but her life is yet complete. As the prince sits by her side, stretching out to awaken her for the first time, he can only understand that while she is yet asleep her soul is the most wonderful creature he has ever known, and when she awakes her spirit will be forevermore.
But at the heart of every fairy tale is the paradox that ruined us all - That while we were yet sinners, Christ died. A commitment was fullfilled by otherworldly powers, sprinkled by magic that has puzzled our puzzler. And as the bride of Christ we wait, unfeigned, before the sacrifice of Christ. But perhaps the greatest tale we have ever told was Prince Charming and Sleeping Beauty. While we wait, we hope. And while we hope, we remember that everything worth keeping was never some thing but always virtue.
