Something pretty for Cinderella Week.
Where there is kindness
There is goodness
And where there is goodness
There is Magic
Have Courage and Be Kind
We truly live in a dark world. Just turn on the news and how often is there ever anything good ever being reported? Courage is a difficult attribute to obtain and kindness even more so. In Cinderella, Ella's mother tells her that key to happiness is to have courage and be kind. For where there is kindness there is goodness and where there is goodness, there is magic. Those words are pretty much that whole tagline of the story.
Where there is kindness, there is goodness
Ella's life was one tragedy after another. Her mother's death. her father's remarriage, the coming of her terrible stepmother and idiot stepsisters, her father's unexpected passing, being made a servant in her own household, being mocked, teased, harassed and berated for no other reason than she was beautiful and kind. This poor girl definitely got the full barrel.
People asked, "Why didn't she just stand up for herself? Talk back to her stepmother? Be independent?" Well, truthfully, Ella had no where else to go. She was as at the mercy of her stepmother and one misspoken word from her stepdaughter would be reason enough to kick her out. It is truly one of the hardest things in the world to hold your tongue when someone has offended you. I have a hard enough time with it, I can't imagine being in Ella's position when her whole livelihood was on the line everyday.
All Ella had was her kindness to get her through. If you notice in the film, whenever Ella replied back with a kind word, Lady Tremaine and her daughters left her alone. Ella was not gunning for a fight or be the one who had the last word. For the most part she would rather be left alone than have to deal with the cruelty of her stepfamily who seemed determined to make her life miserable.
Where there is goodness, there is magic
Ella's kindness is what defines her to everyone around her. Her kindness found in her actions and her temperament empowers that goodness that is inside her. Now, being good can be viewed as boring. Our generation looks down on and despises those that are good in portrayed media (books, movies, television). We all empathize with the misunderstood villain (Magneto), pity the unwanted son (Loki), admire the vengeful daughter (Lady Morgana). Being good is just to common or is it? I just wrote that good news is hard to come by, so why are good people in books and movies looked down upon?
Because it is so difficult to be good in a dark world
We don't despise the heroes because they are good; we despise them because they make being good seem so easy and natural. Superheros such as Captain America and Superman are tossed aside, because they are literally too good to be true (I love those two, by the way! So it's nothing against them). However, if being good was easy then we would have nothing to strive for in our day to day lives. Goodness and being good will always be so much more difficult than evil and being evil.
Ella's mother said that magic comes from goodness. Now Disney meant that magic of Cinderella's wish to go to the ball, but magic in everyday can have various terms. While I don't believe in magic, I think that what can be obtained from kindness and goodness are far greater ideals such as love, honor, nobility, loyalty, generosity and happiness. All of these were Ella's rewards in the end and that it is probably what her mother wanted more for her daughter than simply a pretty dress and a golden coach.
Have Courage and Be Kind
If one attribute can be reaped from Cinderella (2015) it is that a woman (or anyone) does not have to conform to survive in this world. While Ella's nature may have seemed to perfect in the dark world she was living in, that doesn't defeat the fact that people loved her for the person that she was. Courage and kindness may not get you a prince and a crown, but it can save you from a life of sorrow and pain. I'll be honest, it's a daily struggle for me to have courage and be kind. I have a short fuse and little to no patience. I'm not perfect, but when I'm able to be kind to others and face my fears, I feel that I have not only made myself better for a few seconds, but also someone else may have been made better too.
