January 2010
‘The North wind doth blow and we shall have snow and what will the robin do then, poor thing!’ Except that it isn’t the north wind but, apparently, an extremely cold east wind from Siberia causing the temperature to fall drastically (-13 degrees here last night), causing snow to fall, drift and generally make for chaos on the roads.
As we all shiver and bemoan our lot that we have to drive to work in appalling conditions (well, except for those who are retired, so no driving to work – just the worry of broken femurs or other conditions which may interrupt our comfortable existence), there are those who cheer and shout with joy as the snowflakes float and dance, freeze on our windows and our paths.
I am certain that every single Little Dragon has taken joy from the recent winter wonderland. Oh, the fun of those first tentative steps into the white unknown; the ecstasy of rolling in the snow, travelling along on a sledge, building a snowman before wondering where he/she can have gone once warmer days arrive and the snow melts.
So, when do we lose this childlike wonder of the world around? There certainly comes a time when the cold, the icy conditions, the happening that slows us down in our hectic whirl make the world a less enchanting place, as the magic fades - if we let it!
You may remember the story of The Snow Queen in which splinters from a magic mirror are blown around and get into people's hearts and eyes, making their hearts frozen like blocks of ice and their eyes like the mirror itself, only seeing the bad and ugly in people and things. Perhaps you remember how Kay & Gerda make friends and how Kay’s grandmother tells them the story of the Snow Queen who is seen where snowflakes cluster together. The Snow Queen tries to lead Kay to follow her, without immediate success. However, some of the splinters from the mirror find their way into Kay’s heart and eyes. He becomes cruel and aggressive, destroys their window-box garden, makes fun of his grandmother and no longer cares about Gerda, since all appears bad and ugly to him. The only beautiful and perfect things to him now are the tiny snowflakes that he sees through a magnifying glass.
The following winter he goes out with his sled to the market square and hitches it to a curious white sleigh carriage, driven by the Snow Queen. She kisses him twice: once to numb him from the cold, and the second time to cause him to forget about Gerda and his family.
Gerda, is distraught by Kay’s disappearance and goes out to search for him. She questions everyone and everything about Kay's whereabouts and after many, many adventures is led to the Snow Queen’s Palace. When Gerda sees Kay, she runs up to him, and weeps warm tears on him, which melt his heart, burning away the mirror-splinter. Kay bursts into tears, dislodging the splinter from his eye. He is saved by Gerda’s love – the innocent love of a child.
Our Little Dragons still enjoy that innocence. Through them there is the chance that we will rediscover some of the joy of that innocence, that love for our fellows which surmounts all ills, hurts, anger, annoyances. Long may it last!
Val Butterworth