Character Sketch

Why is it that I always write on this thing when I have something more important to be doing? I suppose it's because I avoid spilling my thoughts until it's absolutely necessary. It's too much work and too much to deal with to crack open the week's stress and reflections. I'm generally far too lazy for that and I avoid it at all cost. Unless, of course, I'm avoiding doing the only thing I tend to avoid more- school related assignments. You see, right now I should be writing a character sketch for Once Upon a Mattress. Don't get me wrong- I'm really excited, and I'm all over doing it, but something's been nagging at me since I sat down to write it.
I love the classic story of the princess and the pea, and I've been obsessed with it ever since I was cast as the princess in a modern musical adaptation. But somehow, it seems a little disheartening. Not only does the princess only meet her prince because she's devastatingly lost in a storm, but she also has to deal with his crazy mother who insists that she prove herself before she can marry the man she loves. See apparently prince whats-his-name had been waiting on the right girl for years, but when she finally shows up at his castle (without any effort on his part I might add) he is forbidden to marry her until she passes a test. A test that is completely impossible. I mean his crazy mother places one pea under twenty hugely stuffed downy mattresses. Now we arrive at the most fantastical part- she feels the pea! She feels the pea and earns her right to marry the prince.
A sweet story.
But there are a few things that make me feel a little discouraged. For starters, this girl shows up one night out of the blue and BOOM. Her and the prince are head over heels. And to go further, she has to prove herself to marry him. I mean he couldn't just stand up to his mother and be like "Look, lady, you're insane. I'm what, 24 now? I mean I can legally buy alcohol and vote and I like this girl so enough with it already." I mean that sucks. I dunno that I'd want to marry a guy that made me pass a test to marry him. I'd feel a little better about this story if it'd happened the other way.
The point I'm getting to here is that we all hope for something. We all hope that we're going to meet the perfect partner, and that that person is going to push everything aside for us. We expect, in the age in which we live, that we're going to meet stand-up people that meet our needs and listen and come home that extra hour early just because we asked them to. But, it doesn't happen that way. We're all guilty of it. If at all possible, we bend to the wills of everyone in our lives, not just that special someone's. Even putting our own needs before theirs. If we were the prince in the princess and the pea we'd say "look, babe, I really like you. I do. I want this to work out, but she's my mother. so just do this little test for me, okay? you're a princess it shouldn't be a problem." I mean everything in life doesn't work out romantic-comedy style. Actually, few things do. So maybe it would just make me feel a little better if at least in the fairytales I read, things did.