Woman at the Well: To Be A Princess
When my youngest child was five she informed everyone that she was a princess.
"You're not a princess," an older brother would say.
"I am too a printheth. I am a child of God and He'th the King, tho that maketh me a printheth!
And she would make crowns out of construction paper and glue and decorate them with stickers and crayons and proudly wear them. One day she made a crown and then wore it when we went to the mall. She smiled at everyone who smiled at her, and even the people who didn't smile at her. She was well behaved - she always was, and when we went into a store and paid for our purchase the clerk smiled at her handmade crown and asked, "and what are you today?" "I am a printheth," my daughter confidently said. The clerk smiled bigger. "I wish I were a princess," she said. "Oh, but you are," my princess answered. The clerk looked at her with some amount of astonishment. You see to my daughter, it wasn't that she alone was a princess and deserved to be treated with kindness and respect. It was that EVERYONE was a prince or princess and deserved to be treated with kindness and respect. She's twenty now, and she has spent her life treating people with kindness and respect. When she was given dance lessons by a friend of mine who owned a dance studio, she took that gift seriously and went on to not just be a good dancer, but she became a helper and later a dance teacher. At sixteen she had her own dance classes. The little girls would follow her around like ducklings, they all wanted to be like her. The young boys were in love with her. By the time she was eighteen, she took several classes, taught other classes, filled in at the last minute as needed either as a teacher or a dancer, choreographed, edited music, and did all kinds of job related to that dance studio. At the last recital of every year she came home piled with awards and gifts - not because she was a good dancer, but because she was a good person. I would have parents coming up to me telling me how much they liked her. She loved the children. They were princes and princesses. And they loved her. At her last recital when it was announced that she was leaving because she was all grown up and moving away, the audience was in tears, the children were in tears, and even though many students had come and gone before, I had never seen anything like this. She's on to a new life, and although she's not dancing or teaching right now, she continues to find ways to treat people like the princes and princesses they are.
If we all looked at each other like princes and princesses, if we all treated people with kindness and respect, then most of the problems of this world would disappear. There would be no need for war, no homelessness, no addictions, no starvation or corruption, no separating families and locking children in cages and denying them basic needs.
The concept is simple. If God created us then He is our Father, the King and we are princes and princesses and deserving of kindness and respect. That little girl, at the age of five, in the construction paper crown, knew this.
*****
Today's Canadian Woman is....
Karen Kain (1951 - )
As a world renowned ballerina she has portrayed many princesses and won many awards and is currently the National Ballet of Canada's artistic director. Who says you can't make a lifetime career out of ballet?
I wanted to post a picture of her, but it appears her image although plentiful is being protected by those who photograph her. So I won't risk it. It's telling when informational pages about her won't post a photograph. However if you put her name in search images you will see plenty of old and current photos. And for more information and a great photo you can click here.
