Life Lessons from Penelope
by Brigid Bishop
Have you seen the movie “Penelope” yet?
It may appear to be a fable produced for children, but I beg to differ. I think that the movie was written for women everywhere and that a valuable lesson lies therein.
The movie was produced by Reese Witherspoon and the screenplay was written by Leslie Caveny. There has also been a book produced from the movie by Marilyn Kay.
Please read no further if you have not yet seen the movie and wish to see it without knowing the plot, this would be a spoiler for you!
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In the movie, Penelope, played by Christina Ricci, is a young woman who is the victim of a curse laid upon her bloodline many generations ago, it manifests, unfortunately, upon her birth. She is born with the nose and ears of a pig, rather than a human.
The only way for the curse to be broken, and for Penelope to have normal facial features, is if she is loved “"Til Death Do Us Part” by one of her own kind.
Please, really, read no further if you don’t want the movie to be spoiled for you, I am going to give it away!
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Okay, so, I warned you, if you continue reading please do not be angry at me for spoiling the movie for you.
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Penelope’s mother is frantic to have the curse broken and parades every blue-blooded potential suitor past a two-way mirror to get to know Penelope, invariably, each and every time that they actually SEE Penelope, they run!
Penelope has a beautiful spirit, despite her deformity, yet none seem to see it until she meets one young man who truly does care for her. The only problem is, when he tells her he “can’t” break the curse for her, she doesn’t stop to listen to his reasons why, she, like many women, jumps to the conclusion that it is because of what she perceives to be her “defects”, and her heart is sorely hurt.
As the plot continues, one of the previous “runners”, in order to be politically correct, proposes to Penelope, and reluctantly, with only the goal of breaking the curse in mind, Penelope consents to the marriage.
The young man she is to marry is not of good moral character, seeking only to repair political damage he has done by exaggerated Penelope’s condition to the press, and during the mending of her broken heart, Penelope has gone to the press independently and won the hearts of the general public.
Which is the lesser of the two evils, should Penelope marry the blue-blooded snob or should she remain in her “cursed” state and continue living life as a person who is “different”, and thus remain alone?
On the day of the wedding, as the vows are being exchanged, Penelope comes to her senses and runs away from the altar and the wedding, her mother chases after her pleading with her to go through with the marriage in order to break the curse.
Penelope throws herself to the floor in exasperation and shouts “I LIKE MYSLEF THE WAY I AM”!!!
Voila!!!!
THE CURSE IS BROKEN!!!
Penelope turns into the beautiful young woman she was always meant to be!!!
All she had to do was love herself in order to break the curse! Remember, it would be broken when someone loved her “to death do us part” by one of her OWN kind!
I loved it!!!
If only we all could just love ourselves the way we are!
Back to our story...
Remember the young man who broke Penelope’s heart? The one that she refused to hear out? Well, guess what. He wasn’t who he had presented himself to be, he was not a blue blood, hence, not one of “her own kind”, and THAT was the reason that he could not break the curse for Penelope.
Oh, I am sure you know how the story ends. He loved Penelope even though her face was not what one expected, and his love was true, he also loved her just the way she was, and there you go….
Thank you Reese Witherspoon for a clever and energizing fairy tale to replace all those old “knight in shining armor” fables. If I had a young daughter I would be sure to read this fable to her regularly and have this movie in her theatre collection.
I see women turn themselves inside out trying to change themselves to fit into a man’s life. The sad part is, many times, these women have no existing relationship with the man in question at all to begin with, so they are out there, pursuing the interests of the male they are interested in, trying to become part of his world, when they actually have no true interest in the activities or cultures they submerge themselves in other than to desperately try to get into some man’s world.
We could all learn a wonderful lesson from Penelope, love ourselves! After all, it truly is “'til death do us part” when we are talking about self love.
We don’t need to change our hairstyles, lose weight, gain weight, have breast implants, liposuction, nose jobs, dumb-down, adapt to their hobbies, lifestyles or cultures, all we need to do is be ourselves, love who we already are, and the right love will come along.
If we are busy trying to transform ourselves into our projection of what some man might want, we are first and foremost losing ourselves and secondarily, we are unlikely to attract the man. If he wanted us, he would already be with us, the way we originally were when we met him!
BE A PENELOPE!
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