Hmmmm…Me and My Glass Slipper

“Hedonic adaptation is the tendency for humans to quickly adapt to major positive or negative life events or changes and return to their base level of happiness.” - Mike Fishbein

I read something the other day about finding a glass slipper at midnight, on some stairs, usually means the woman wearing it had been drunk.  Well, I am about to shatter your glass-slipper ideology, and hidden meanings, we were taught from the time we could be read stories.

The Cinderella story dates back to 1697, in France, but the story goes all the way back to ancient times in Greece.  Shoes, foot coverings have been in many old stories.  There is a Cinderella story in the Blackfoot stories.  It is called Scarred-face Girl and the theme was the same as Cinderella, minus the shoes.  Sometimes, in retelling, down the decades, things change some.  In French “Pantoufle de verre” could easily been mistranslated from “pantoufle de vair”, which means “fur slipper”.   Think the whisper story we passed around in a circle and got all muddled in the passing along.   Nonetheless, the story changes deeply when considering the ‘fur slipper’.  

Many scholars believe, if the slipper were made of fur, which is logical, that is was a metaphor for female pubic part.  If you think of the story, the Prince fitted something into something to assure the fit.  That is logical as well.  Other scholars believe that it was a glass slipper because that would be ever so expensive but still represents Cinderella’s vagina.    Her virginity would, then, be highly favorable.  In the German story, the stepsisters smash the glass slipper, cutting themselves in the doing.  You do not have to be a scholar to connect the blood with the vagina hymen breaking and their loss of their own virginity that would not make them worthy of a Prince.  Awk!  

So many of us have sought to fit into our own glass slippers and found them crushed and not worth the work it took, the pain they caused, and the disheartened feelings left when they were not what we expected.  Everyone has a point of actuality in possibilities and expectations.  Sometimes we forget our reality and relativistic abilities by seeking that that is outside of us, when, in reality, happiness is internal.  Seeking validation of happiness from things outside us is a recipe for misery.  As well, it is a signal that we are not self-aware in some of our expectations.  I have, many times, sought that that simply was not for me.  I, doggedly, attempted to fit my foot into someone else’s glass slipper.  I, easily, forget what a hero I have been on my own.  I forget to celebrate those things I have gained without attaching it to someone else.  I forget to be grateful.  When I feel bored, it means that I have forgotten to seek new high points of happiness.  I know what makes me happy, so why do I seek something else to keep me happy. My idea on this is that we forget to do the things that already make us happy, have made us happy in the past.  Art makes me happy in a soulfully peaceful way.  Yes, it is something outside self (the actual finished product), but it is in the doing that a peaceful joy comes.  Adding one more technique or try something new, within the arting, adds subtle layers of happiness within.  Having it turn out perfectly is not the end result.  The happiness result comes from within the trying and experimenting.

Let us be aware of our Present happiness so we do not seek someone else’s glass slipper.

Much love, sister-friends.  Much love in the happiness that already resides in you, not the glass slippers of life!

©Carol Desjarlais 6.26.20

Doing the slipper was enjoyable.. I had not focused in on much but portraits.   

Trying to get the slipper to look like glass was challenging to say the least.  I decided to do it in geometric shapes.

Then I worked on getting surprise look on her face.  Of course, it was the eyes.

The next difficult thing I was challenged by, was the hand... I could choose the slipper to be held in her hand, or someone else's hand.  Hands still challenge me. When I got it to where I could let it be, it looks like a feminine hand... interesting aye?