Hans Christian Anderson

When I was a child, I was drowned with storybooks galore... I have the a whole collection in which is now collecting dust in a shelf hidden in my storeroom. With my very bad habit (but I think its a good one) of having books to "accompany" my toilet time, I decided to bring one of those unfinished collections in for a flip. Out of the lot, I pick out Hans Christian Andersons collection of stories which included The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, The Lil TinSoldier and a whole lot more...

As I read through those wonderful stories, I realised they still hold some truth in the lessons that we are still learning today. Take for example, The story of the Emporer's New Clothes. The naked truth is that we believe in what others think and no matter how foolish it was, we are blinded by the fact that we believe in even a myth than trusting our own instincts. Sad but true. We listen to what seemed to be the "acceptable view" and never even question it, worried about being the "odd one out". In this case, a child asked the most simplistic question and shamed the king and his men!

How about the story of the Fir Tree where he longed to be what he heard from the sparrow and worst, he wished that he was chopped down just so that he could "experience" what other "fir trees" have. At the end of the day it was nothing to shout about rather, it hurt him so much more... We longed to be all but ourselves and we are never grateful for who we are until we experience it but too late, we've crossed the line!

Oh and my personal favourite during puberty was "The Ugly Duckling"... I wonder if I have ever turned into swan (I hope, cross me fingers)but we all judge one another by the way someone looks don't we? We talk about their apperance not knowing whats within and they turn out to be the great and amazing people...

We have heard these stories a million times and they possess beautiful messages yet, today, these are the very lessons we fail to learn! Is it just us or is it our human nature, that we never are able to learn from our mistakes? Or is our dear author so divine that he could forsee that in us? The best part, such stories speak to me so much as a gay guy and to my suprise to find Hans Anderson a Bi!