I love fairy tales. I love the russian tales best, where cursing witches ride around in big flying kettles backwards muttering "May the devil take the Russians" and there is constant danger and castles can shrink to fit inside an egg and everything is solved by clever young girls with long braids.
But I love other fairy tales too and remember reading that Snow White was originally put out in the forest by her own mother. The evil stepmother thing was a pre-Disney Disney move by the Grimms, to make the story more appealing to kids and perhaps their mothers.
The original story seems more interesting. There will come a time, sooner than you think, when you realize your sun is setting while your daughter's is rising. That's how it should be. But you may feel that instant with your own mother was not so long ago, when you were 13 in Venice and the two of you both thought the occasional whistles were for you, not the other.
Ps. I realize now, that my mother was younger then, in Venice, than I am these days.
